ABSTRACT
We provide a review of the most important and interesting roles of macrofungi in humid tropical forests. Macrofungi play a diverse, important roles in humid tropical forests, including their prominence in nutrient cycling and decomposition, acting as beneficial mycorrhizal symbionts by providing nutrients to their host plants, and parasitizing or killing plants and invertebrates. Macrofungi are defined as those that produce fruiting bodies visible to the unaided eye, but we include examples of agaric fungi (Agaricales, commonly called mushrooms) that have largely or entirely replaced production of mushroom fruiting bodies with highly visible root-like structures (rhizomorphs and cords) or nonsporulating macroscopic structures used for dispersal by animals. An important characteristic of most terrestrial fungi is the production of linear structures such as hyphal strands, cords and rhizomorphs that can translocate nutrients between sources and sinks. The ability of macrofungi to concentrate nutrients in decaying substrata, nodules and fruit bodies makes them nutritionally attractive to both vertebrate (mostly small mammals but also turtles) and invertebrate consumers. This includes mushroom-farming ants in the Neotropics and termites in the Paleotropics.
