The racemic form of the bicyclic diterpene hydrocarbon 6 -araneosene (4), endowed with the dolahellane skeleton, was prepared from geraniol in two different ways. The more efficient route involved 13 steps and proceeded with an overall yield of 3.6% (average: 77% per step). With this reference sample at hand, the hitherto elusive metabolite (-)-4, a likely biogenetic precursor of cycloaraneosene ((-)-3) and sordaricin ((-)-1), could finally be isolated in 2 99.5% purity from the neutral fractions of the mold Sorduriu uraneosu CAIN (Ascomycetes).