Carychiinae is a taxonomic subfamily of minute air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.

[1] Carychiinae is part of the family Ellobiidae (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

[3] Genera within the subfamily Carychiinae include: One lineage of the Ellobioidea, the Carychiidae has successfully accomplished a complete transition onto land.

[3] Extant carychiid snails inhabit aphotic and permanently wet epigean (Carychium) or subterranean (Zospeum) environments throughout their Holarctic distribution.

[3] This dramatic shift from a marine to a terrestrial habitat has occurred independently of the stylommatophoran land-snails of the Eupulmonata.