What animals live in mushroom forests?

A followup to this question.

In my world, mushroom producing fungi have developed a symbiotic relationship with algae (or cyanobacteria) similar to Prototaxites. These fungi exist alongside all the usual plant species of earth, thriving in niches such as the dimly lit floor of dense rainforests, and as primary 'vegetation' in the month long nights of cool damp polar regions.

They have developed a range of shapes and sizes, from upright broad-headed shields and chanterelles, to spreading clubs and corals, to tree-climbing brackets. They have also developed a varieties of colors based on the color-absorping pigmentation of their algae or cyanobacteria symbiotes. The fungus still retain their hyphae below ground which they use to capture nutrients from the soil, but their above ground mushroom structures are strengthened with chitin and last for years, or even centuries.

Similar to how insects pollinate flowers, and birds and mammals disperse seeds for flowering plants, what animal species are crucial to the ecology of these mushroom forests?

posted over 7 years ago

kingledion‭

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