Statistical analyses

The mycelium age, i.e. layer, did not have any effect on the decomposition (Table S1). Therefore they were treated as replicates, allowing to use n=3 replicates for each week in subsequent statistical analyses. A two-way ANOVA model with species, time and their interactions was used to determine significant effects on the decomposition of necromass (% mass remaining). This was followed by a post-hoc analysis to evaluate significant differences between species.
Differences in initial chitin, glucans and melanin contents among the necromass of the six species were assessed with one-way ANOVAs. Differences in the concentration of chitin, glucans and melanin between species over time and their interactions were assessed through an ANCOVA. The relationship between the weekly mass remaining and the concentration of melanin, chitin and glucans were determined through linear model analyses. All statistical analyses were conducted using R studio (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria)