P. nigrolineatus imbibes large quantities of wood in its diet and may have developed a symbiotic relationship with microbes to degrade this resource. Wood decomposition is dynamic and the rate of decomposition depends on many factors including priority effects  and successional changes in microbial communities . Fungi have been shown to shape the composition of the bacterial communities  and are thought to be more abundant in the early stages of decay, with fungal mycelia doubling faster than bacterial cells , and bacterial-fungal interactions facilitating decomposition ,,. Although bacterial-fungal interactions are vital in plant cell wall digestion, aerobic and anaerobic fungal activity has been shown to be responsible for most cell wall degradation by penetrating into plant tissues not normally available to bacteria .