Worms Rediscovered

An interesting article on enigmatic earthworms notes the rediscoveries of several species. From IHT:

"Sam James, a research associate at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, has named 80 new worm species in the last 20 years.
"These discoveries do not garner the same level of attention that a new bird might - after all, a worm does little more than slither through the mud to attract a mate, and that just doesn't make for good television - but they are important nonetheless." ...
"On a trip to Brazil, James found Fimoscolex sporadochaetus, a fairly ordinary-looking pinkish-gray worm whose demise had been greatly exaggerated. In fact, it had simply gone underground in 1969 and hadn't resurfaced in the presence of an earthworm scientist since.
"'Our position on these extinctions is that they are more likely to be off the radar than off the planet,' James said. Buoyed by this realization, he hopes to go hunting for another elusive Brazilian worm, Rhinodrilus fafner, which measures an impressive 6 feet in length but is equally reluctant to slither up to a taxonomist.
"That's not all. A sighting in Washington state of the giant white Palouse earthworm Driloleirus americanus, which can stretch to 3 feet long and smells of lilies, sent shock waves through the earthworm community last year. If the Great White Worm was back after nearly 20 years in hiding, what else might still be out there?"