It lives in dry evergreen forests in tropical south-eastern Asia and builds termite mounds in which it cultivates fungus for use as food.

Termites are important in the ecology of the tropical and subtropical forests in the region as degraders of leaf litter and decomposers of dead wood.

This method of feeding is especially advantageous for termites living in areas of dry forests where little fungal degradation of leaf litter takes place because of the low level of humidity.

However, in colonies of Hypotermes makhamensis, the garden's main role is to provide a nutritious food source, the termites principally feeding on the fungal mycelium rather than the digested product.

[4] In Cambodia, a newly described species of tiny, blind, wingless scarab beetle, Termitotrox cupido, has been found inside the Hypotermes makhamensis mound, on the walls of the fungus garden chambers.