Shells large for subfamily Olivinae, elongated, generally fusiform, with straight or slightly convex sides; shells highly polished, glossy; shoulders nonexistent, with body whorls blending directly into spires; spires generally elevated, subpyramidal, with some species having somewhat scalariform spires and others having low, pyramidal spires; edge of suture deeply canaliculate, with thin spiral groove; spire whorls enameled; apertures narrow, becoming wider toward anterior end; columellas well developed, lined with numerous large, tooth-like plications; plicae become larger toward anterior end; shell colors generally white, pale pink, pale blue, or cream-tan, overlaid with variable amounts of large, tan or brown triangular markings arranged in a net-like pattern; two bands of darker triangular markings or amorphous flammules almost always present around mid-body; edge of spire suture characteristically marked with large purple-brown or reddish-brown elongated longitudinal flammules, overlaid with thin brown longitudinal hairlines; dark suture flammules separated by evenly spaced white triangular markings along edge of suture channel; protoconchs proportionally large, rounded, bulbous, composed of 2 or 3 whorls. Type Species: Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834, Carolinian province, from North Carolina to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

Previously (Petuch and Sargent, 1986: 119), this large American speciescomplex had been placed in the subgenus Strephona Morch, 1852 (Type: Oliva flammulata Lamarck, 1811), primarily because of the similarity in shell shapes and the presence of triangular "tent markings" on both groups. The American complex, however, differs from the West African Strephona species (O. flammulata from Senegal to Angola, and O. verdensis Petuch and Sargent, 1986, from the Cape Verde Islands) in having larger, more elongated shells and in having the band of large chevron-like flammules and hairlines along the edge of the filament channel. This characteristic band of flammules is found on all of the Americoliva species, both western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, but is absent on the West African Strephona species.