[1][2] The holotype specimen is composed of a mostly complete worker caste adult female which has been preserved as an inclusion in a transparent chunk of clear yellow Canadian amber.

Analysis of the amber composition indicates it originated as cupressaceous resins which were deposited in lagoons and salt water marshes along the Western Interior Seaway.

The specific epithet occidentalis was based from the Latin word meaning from the west, a reference the genus being the first Mesozoic aneuretine found in the Western Hemisphere.

[1] Cananeuretus is one of six ant species described from the Grassy Lake site, the others being Canapone dentata, Chronomyrmex medicinehatensis, Eotapinoma macalpini, Haidoterminus cippus, and Sphecomyrma canadensis.

They excluded the genus from Dolichoderinae, which Eotapinoma belongs to, and separated the two genera based on the well developed sting on Cananeuretus in combination with an apparent lack of acidopore.