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I suppose this is the particle physics equivalent of 'discovering' heavier and heavier elements in the periodic table -- good evidence towards existing theory, but effectively these are artificial constructions that exist only briefly and never (?) outside lab conditions.

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Yes-ish. There are a few obscure theories that explain dark matter as stable, super-symmetric, super-heavy, non-interacting particles of this sort. But such particles are not predicted by the standard model.

It's more akin to 'discovering' new nuclear isomers that are predicted but have never been observed.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_isomer

Considering 10 ^ -9 seconds is considered meta-stable for a nuclear isomer that's also a seemingly pointless exercise. However, IMO this is interesting comparison simply because of the one edge case that's seemly stable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_tantalum lasts for ~10^15 years so we might also find a vary heavy but stable 'particle'.

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