L. gongylophorus is completely dependent on ants for survival with workers feeding it cut plant matter and new queens carrying a piece of mycelium in their infrabuccal pocket (a specialised structure within the mouth) in order to found a new colony.

[4] The mutualistic relationship also includes a third species as Pseudonocardia bacteria coat the exoskeleton of the ants and produce antibiotics which protect the fungal garden from mycoparasitic microfungi like members of the Escovopsis genus.

Including the parasitic Escovopsis microfungi or micromycetes this means a leafcutter ant colony may in fact be a symbiotic relationship between five species.

[9] The sheer scale of the ants' farming can see 10-15% of leaves in a colony's foraging range being cut and fed to the fungi[8] which results in significant carbon dioxide emissions from L. gongylophorus as this plant biomass is broken down.

[10] Due to the enhanced rate of breakdown of the plant biomass facilitated by the fungus compared to the slower natural degradation of leaves that fall on the surface, leafcutter ants and their symbiotic fungi partners may play a surprisingly significant role in the ecosystem's ability to sequester carbon.

In Møller's 1893 study he described the mushrooms of Rozites gongylophorus growing from a nest removed from the wild as follows: Cap: Up to 16cm in diameter.

This study succeeded in producing mushrooms on an oatmeal medium from samples acquired from the nests of Myrmicocrypta buenzlii, Mycetophylax conformis, Cyphomyrmex costatus and Apterostigma auriculatum which were described as appearing similar to Møller's observation.

More recent studies based upon DNA sequence data fail to differentiate the genera Leucoagaricus and Leucocoprinus.

Attamyces was a monotypic genus described by Kreisel after he found the fungus fruiting on the nest of the fungus-growing ants Atta insularis in Cuba.