Auriscalpium is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of mushroom

Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...

s typifying the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Auriscalpiaceae

Auriscalpiaceae

The Auriscalpiaceae are a family of fungi in the Russulales order. Like much of the Russulales, it has been defined through molecular phylogeny, and includes physically dissimilar species, such as the tooth fungus Auriscalpium and the gilled, often shelf-like members of Lentinellus. The family...

 and characterized by in part by rough-walled, amyloid

Amyloid (mycology)

In mycology the term amyloid refers to a crude chemical test using iodine in either Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution, to produce a black to blue-black positive reaction. It is called amyloid because starch gives a similar reaction, and that reaction for starch is also called an amyloid reaction...

 spores that are produced on pendant spines, hence it is considered to be a tooth fungus. The type species, A. vulgare, is a common, easily identified fungus in the Northern Hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

 found fruiting exclusively on mature, fallen, often buried conifer cone

Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...

s. Its wiry, long hairy stipe

Stipe (mycology)

thumb|150px|right|Diagram of a [[basidiomycete]] stipe with an [[annulus |annulus]] and [[volva |volva]]In mycology a stipe refers to the stem or stalk-like feature supporting the cap of a mushroom. Like all tissues of the mushroom other than the hymenium, the stipe is composed of sterile hyphal...

 is topped by an eccentrically placed, shaggy pileus

Pileus (mycology)

The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...

 bearing the pendant, flexible, spore-bearing spines. The entire fructification resembles and perhaps could be used as an ear pick

Ear pick

Ear picks, also called ear scoops, or ear spoons, are a type of curette used to clean the ear canal of earwax . These are traditionally made from bamboo or precious metals such as silver or gold, but more commonly from stainless steel or plastic.Use of an ear pick is hazardous and may be...

 (see etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 below). Other species in the genus do not occur on cones or lack the eccentric pileus on a long stalk. According to the Dictionary of the Fungi (10th edition, 2008), the genus contains eight widely distributed species.

Etymology

Auriscalpium is a compound of the Latin, auris, "ear"; and scalpo, "I scratch", generally meaning ear pick

Ear pick

Ear picks, also called ear scoops, or ear spoons, are a type of curette used to clean the ear canal of earwax . These are traditionally made from bamboo or precious metals such as silver or gold, but more commonly from stainless steel or plastic.Use of an ear pick is hazardous and may be...

. The term was originally applied as a specific epithet by Linnaeus in 1753, viz. Hydnum auriscalpium and changed in 1821 to vulgare when S.F. Gray

Samuel Frederick Gray

Samuel Frederick Gray was a British botanist, mycologist, and pharmacologist. He was the father of the zoologists John Edward Gray and George Robert Gray.-Background:...

 recognized the cone-inhabiting fungus as a new genus, named after its type species, Auriscalpium vulgare. Tautonym

Tautonym

-In biology :In biology, tautonym is an informal term to indicate a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, for example Bison bison...

s, such as "Auriscalpium auriscalpium" are illegitimate under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.