Sometimes we can find strange names in books on natural science. Fungi belonging to the family Polyporaceae are called “monkey’s stool=サルノコシカケ saru-no-koshikake” in Japan.

This summer, I went to a mountain in the inner part of Wakayama prefecture to investigate insects. Because the road to the trail that I had planned had collapsed, I changed to a different route.  But it seemed to be a rarely used trail, and it was rather rough and difficult to find a way. I got off the route many times. If not for the GPS function of the mobile phone, I would have been in distress.

Probably thank to that it was an unused mountain trail, I saw a “monkey stool” of a size I had never seen before. It was 70 cm in diameter. I think a monkey can really sit down on it.