Ambrosia beetles breed and maintain their own food fungi

Ambrosia beetles practice active agriculture: A bark beetle species breeds and cultivates food fungi in its nests and ensures that so-called weed fungi spread less. This has now been experimentally demonstrated for the first time by biologist Janina Diehl from Freiburg. She is a doctoral student under Prof. Dr. Peter Biedermann, Professor of Forest Entomology and Forest Protection at the University of Freiburg.