The genus Zootecus Westerlund, 1887 has a wide distribution range that stretches from Myanmar in the east over Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Iran, the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa to the Senegal and the Cape Verde Islands in the west. From the islands in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, extant populations have only been reported from the Cape Verde Islands, where members of the genus are also known from Holocene deposits. Early Pliocene fossils of Zootecus have also been found in Lanzarote (Canary Islands). Until today, the name Zootecus insularis (Ehrenberg, 1831) has been used for specimens of the genus’ whole African and Asian distribution range, for extant specimens from all the Cape Verde Islands, as well as for the Early Pliocene fossils from Lanzarote. Many authors also referred to extant populations of Zootecus from the Cape Verde Islands under the species-group name Pupa subdiaphana P. P. King, 1832 – either as a distinct species, or as a subspecies or variety of Z. insularis. Here we accept Z. subdiaphanus as a distinct extant species and describe two additional species of Zootecus as new to science, Z. andreasi spec. nov. from Holocene deposits of São Vicente (Cape Verde Islands) and Z. christinaeamatae spec. nov. from Pliocene deposits of Lanzarote (Canary Islands). Buliminus couffoni Germain, 1910 from the Pleistocene of Mauretania is accepted as a valid species of Zootecus (comb. nov.). We show that the nominal taxon Z. insularis caucasicus Steklov, 1966 does not belong to Zootecus, but should better be regarded as a distinct species (stat. nov.) in the newly proposed genus Parzootecus gen. nov. of the family Enidae (comb. nov.). Also a “?Zootecus sp.” from the Palaeocene of the Oman and an unnamed species from the Neogene of Abu Dhabi are referred to the family Enidae instead of the family Achatinidae, Subulininae. Finally, arguments are presented that cast great doubts on the status of Z. insularis as representing a so-called living fossil. For the genus Chilogymnus Ehrenberg, 1831, we here select Helix aspersa O. F. Müller, 1774 as type species to protect the well-known name Zootecus. Consequently, Chilogymnus Ehrenberg, 1831 becomes a junior synonym of Cornu Born, 1778.