Funisciurus pyrropus (F. Cuvier, 1833)

Robert S. Hoffmann & Charles G. Anderson, 1993, Order Rodentia - Family Sciuridae, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 419-465 : 428

Funisciurus pyrropus (F. Cuvier, 1833) . In E. Geoffroy and F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mammifères, No. 66, 2 unno, pp and pl.[1833]; Tab 4:240 [1842].

TYPE LOCALITY: Gabon, "...et elle venoit de Tile Fernandopô, dans le gulfe de Guinée..."

DISTRIBUTION: Gambia, S Senegal, Guinea Bissau, W Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, S Ivory Coast, SW Ghana, W Nigeria, W Cameroon, Rio Muni ( Equatorial Guinea), W Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, NW Angola.

SYNONYMS: akka De Winton, 1895; emini (De Winton, 1895; not Stuhlman, 1894); erythrops (Gray, 1867); leonis Thomas, 1905; leucostigma (Temminck, 1853); mandingo Thomas, 1903; nigrensis Thomas, 1909; niveatus Thomas, 1923; pembertoni Thomas, 1904; rubripes (Du Chaillu, 1860); talboti Thomas, 1909; victoriae Allen and Loveridge, 1942; wintoni Neumann, 1900.

COMMENTS: Cuvier wrote, "Je donnerai à cet Écuriel le nom de Pyrropus , â cause de la couleur rousse de ses pieds." Schinz (1845) spelled the species name pyrrhopus with no mention of the previous spelling. This constitutes an unjustified emendation. Not found on Bioko, Equatorial Guinea (= "Fernandopô", see type locality), and since the animal was a pet, it probably was captured on the mainland ( Thomas, 1890:447).