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?
James has been watching the destruction of rare earthworm habitats with dismay. If their forests and swamps disappear, the worms may vanish, too.
"On the other hand," he said after the sighting of the Palouse worm, "who knows? One of these creatures could show up in the corner of a soccer field. Stranger things have happened."
