There’s one in Nevada called Cryptantha insolita. This species was last collected near a spring somewhere in north Las Vegas in 1942 when it was still a small town. Between the springs drying up due to excessive groundwater pumping, the massive sprawl of modern Las Vegas, and the vague original description, no one is sure exactly where these springs were. There are still surviving springs at the far edges of the valley but this species hasn’t been found at any of them. It’s also unclear if it’s simply an ecotype of the closely related Cryptantha (Oreocarya) virginensis.
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Sikhotealinia zhiltzovae, the only discovered extant (possibly) member of the family Jurodidae. It has been found once, and that was dead in the window of a cabin in Russia.
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Sadly I don’t know more of suh species, some beetles from the Far East that were found when collecting other animals? But don’t remember the name. So one I like the most is one that was refound by me after initial description in 1985 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/53846101
p.s. Took me writing the message to remember, it’s of course Slender-billed curlew.
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I think I speak for all Arkansas birders when I saw I’ve often dreamt of finding an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Some of us probably even have. For myself, only in natural history museums, Tanner’s videos, and often in my waking and sleeping dreams.
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That is #1 beetle I was referring to in my previous message!
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This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder how many creatures never get discovered at all because someone just went “Oh, another dead bug” and sweeps it outside without a second thought.
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I would vote for South Island kōkako (Callaeas cinereus). It was considered extinct until 2013, but is now " data deficient", and there is hope that some might still be around 
More info, including a map of where it might have been encountered here:
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Sure! Unfortunately there are no good resources avaliable now, but I’m working on collecting all known resources and synthesizing them into a quickguide.
For now, though, it’s good to know what exactly to take a picture of so they can be ID’d later. Seapills seem to need a good dorsal shot, a good side shot to show how flat they are and a good shot of the telson and uropods showing ornamentation. Some groups might also need a mouthpart shot too
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I really want the Mariana Mallard to be found alive someplace. They have such a unique evolutionary history, possibly being a species or subspecies derived from ancient Mallard-Pacific Black Duck hybrids. What’s even more interesting is that neither Mallards nor Pacific Black Ducks have been found to live on the Mariana Islands, where the Mariana Mallard lived.
Members of Mariana Mallards had two distinct appearances, one like a Mallard and the other like a Pacific Black Duck.
Sadly, the last Mariana Mallard, a male, was seen in 1981. The draining of their wetlands is linked to their extinction, hunting by humans as well.
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The two species of gastric brooding frogs, Rheobatrachus sp..
These frogs were very limited in range, and went extinct less than 10 years after being discovered. They had a unique reproductive strategy (as their common name suggests), where the female would swallow fertilised eggs and brood the eggs inside her stomach, then regurgitate them when they develop into tiny frogs.
In 2013, there was an attempt at the “Lazarus Project” to collect tissues from frozen specimen and clone them into the eggs of another living species. The embryos only survived for a few days in the end, but they did say the dividing cells contained some gastric brooding frog genetic materials.
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The south island kokako.
It was listed as extinct until 2013 when its status was reclassified as ‘data deficient’ by the Department of Conservation. The re-classification provides renewed hope and energy.
The search is urgent. If South Island kōkako still exists there will be very few left and they need to be found and protected.
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During my time in Mexico City a befriended botanist sent me a list of species that haven’t been seen around Mexico City for at least ten years. I always kept an eye for those species, but I never could find one. As Mexico City still grows rapidly, I think most of these species are actually lost.
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The Celestus Giant Galliwasps interest me, they are endemic to specific islands in the Antilles. One of the more talked about ones, the Jamaican Giant Galliwasp ( Celestus occiduus), hasn’t been recorded since the mid 19th century, many galliwasps are threatened due to the introduction of mongooses to the Antilles, also domestic cats and dogs, many locals also kill them due to the false belief that they are venomous.
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We’ve got two South Island Kokako fans in the chat!
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relevant preprint that just came out: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.06.487399v1.full.pdf
‘Multiple lines of evidence indicate survival of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana’
(the photos look like they were taken on a Nokia in pouring rain from 100m away)
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I kid you not, I was just reading about this!
Have to say I’m skeptical yet again.
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Why couldn’t they get more cameras there if it was “caught” on it once? That tree should’ve been covered in them.
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Same, unsatisfactory evidence.
Yeah I saw the headline and was briefly hopeful, then I looked at the actual images…lol. About as convincing as the photos of bigfoot.
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