A team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has collaborated with researchers from the University of Würzburg to investigate how a symbiotic fungus helps the ship-timber beetle survive in dead wood. This fungus stores significantly more nutrients than other types of fungi. It also accumulates numerous phenolic substances from the wood in its mycelium. It produces monoterpene alcohols and acetic acid, for example, which inhibit other fungi. Notably, the ambrosia fungus thrives particularly well in acidic environments.