Naucoria: spores various shades of brown; pileus some shade of brown; stipe typically up to 2.5 mm broad at the apex. Stature: typically Collbyioid; rarely Naucorioid.

Species of Naucoria lack:

a well developed cortina or annulus; a well developed partial veil is absent (thus you can separate it from Cortinarius or Inocybe).

Marginate gills (thus you can separate it from Inocybe and Hebeloma);

an appreciable odor (thus you can separate it from species of Cortinarius, Inocybe, and Hebeloma)

lack a cartilaginous rind and a rooting stipe (thus you can separate it from Phaeocollbyia)

lack a rusty brown spore print and are not lignicolous (thus you can separate it from Gymnopilus, Galerina , and Cortinarius)

typically do not grow in mosses and typically do not have a conic to campanulate pileus (thus you can separate it from Galerina)

gills which separate easily from the pileus (thus you can separate it from Paxillus).

The genus Naucoria is the brown-spored equivalent of the white-spored genus Collybia. Most of the brown-spored genera can easily be recognized; thus mentally you need to key out the genera mentioned above; if the mushroom you are identifying has none of the identifying features of the other genera, it most typically will be a species of Naucoria.