Some species are so rare, so secluded or timid that they flit through our consciousness like a ghost. Perhaps they’re known from no more than a single specimen, others, undoubtedly, exist only in the hazy halls of rumor. The diversity of life is too great for us, a single species, to pin every bit of biodiversity under the spotlight of science.

Take as an example the ghost shrimp, Ctenocheloides attenboroughi (click through for a picture). The species is known from a single individual, fo