[3] In 2008, Witte & Maschwitz discovered that E. procera specialises in harvesting mushrooms in the rainforest for food, representing a new, previously unreported feeding strategy in ants.

[2] Euprenolepis procera is endemic to South East Asia, being found in the rainforests of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

The antennae of both worker castes are made up of twelve segments and are a lighter colour than their heads, their mandibles have five teeth.

The antennae of the males are made of thirteen segments, unlike twelve in workers, and their mandibles have only one well-developed tooth.

During field observations only two occurrences of them feeding on animals (a grasshopper and a snail) were recorded, compared to 266 mushrooms which were consumed.

In a laboratory study, colonies thrived for over thirteen weeks on a diet consisting only of Pleurotus and Agaricus mushrooms.

Once they have harvested the mushrooms, they transport pieces of them back to their nest and arrange them into piles 1–4 cm (0.4–1.6 in) in diameter.

[2] They are thought to have evolved this feeding habit because few other animals eat mushrooms and therefore there is little competition for the food resource.

They may have similar effects as ants that harvest seeds of plants, by changing the relative abundance of different fungal species.