chilinidæ

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. A family of basommatophorous pulmonato gastropods, with wide flattened tentacles, eyes sessile on the hinder surfaces of the tentacles, no jaw, peculiar lingual teeth (the median small, cuspidate, the marginal pectiniform or palmate, with an external superior prolongation), and a spiral shell with rapidly increasing whorls and a plicated columella. The species are peculiar to the fresh waters of South America.