Taxon classification Animalia Stylommatophora Orthalicidae

Genus Sultana Shuttleworth, 1856

Type species.

Helix sultana Dillwyn, 1817, by tautonomy.

Description.

Shell (elongate-)ovate, imperforate, thin to solid, shell height up to ca. 60-90 mm (study area), colour pattern generally with <<-shaped spots or sinuous streaks, protoconch pitted or radially wrinkled, teleoconch with or without spiral elements, last whorl usually inflated.

Distribution.

?Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana.

Habitat.

Only partly known; mostly living in humid forests from 0-ca. 2000 m.

Anatomy.

Troschel 1849: Sultana (Sultana) sultana (Dillwyn, 1817) [r]; Strebel and Pfeffer 1882: Sultana (Metorthalicus) atramentaria (Pfeiffer, 1855) [g, m, r], Sultana (Sultana) sultana [g].

Remarks.

We follow herein the classification of Schileyko (1999), awaiting further morphological and molecular studies to ascertain the systematic position of this genus. The record for Panama is based on unverified museum collections. Contrary to Schileyko (1999: 362) we are not aware of any sinistral Sultana species.