[3] Pavel V. Kvartalnov from the Lomonosov Moscow State University found the first specimen of E. totoro while looking under stones in the Crocodile Lakes area of Cát Tiên National Park in Vietnam with Eduard A. Galoyan and Igor V. Palko from the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre in November 2007.

[3][4] Vietnamese researchers Thai Dran Bai and Nguyen Duc Anh first described this species in 2010,[5] but a team led by the Brazilian zoologist Ivo de Sena Oliveira from the University of Leipzig published the first formal species description in 2013, including data from scanning electron microscopy and molecular analysis (mitochondrial COI and 12S rRNA sequences).

[2] Kvartanov and his colleagues watched this film on the evening of their discovery of the first specimen, which reminded them of the Catbus.

[4] These velvet worms have permeable skin that readily dries out, so they spend most of their lives inside moist soil, in rotting logs, or under rocks.

[6] This species is found mainly during the rainy season, which runs from November to June in Vietnam.

[3] For example, E. totoro differs from these other species in the shape of the apical piece on its dorsal primary papillae.

This piece is spherical in E. totoro rather than conical (as in E. butleri), cylindrical (as in E. sumatranus), or variable in shape (as in E. horsti or E. weldoni).

Other diagnostic features of E. totoro include distinct types of scales on the ventral side of the body, the inner structure of the circular pits on the male genital pad, and the position and size of the anal gland pads in males.