[7] The Recent native distribution of Streptaxidae includes South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mayotte, Comores, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, India, Sri Lanka, Andamans, South-East Asia and the Philippines.

[8] Streptaxids can generally be recognized by their eccentric or cylindrical shells, while the animals have a bright yellow to red or orange body with external hook-like structures on the everted penis.

[7] Early classifications of the family such as Wilhelm Kobelt (1905–6), used mainly shell shape and the arrangement of apertural dentition.

[8] However, many shell characters are highly conserved or occur recurrently, making some species and genera difficult to separate.

[8] Prior to Schileyko's revision in 2000 only two subfamilies, the Streptaxinae and the Enneinae had been recognized, which were primarily based on their shell morphology.