Abstract. – A new genus of the harpacticoid family Laophontidae T. Scott, 1905 is described here. Aequinoctiella gen. nov. includes two species: A. cavallettii sp. nov., collected from the interstitial habitat of a beach on Tomea Island (Kepulauan Archipelago, southwest of Sulawesi), and A. sagarum sp. nov. collected from the interstitial habitat of a beach on Siquijor Island (Philippines, Mindanao Sea). The new genus lacks the sexually dimorphic P3, and the females show a partially-merged genital double-somite. The two new species have a similar habitus, integumental ornamentation, and chaetotaxy of the swimming legs, but they differ in the morphology of A1, mouthparts, male P5, and degree of reduction of P3 and P4 endopods in both sexes. A third species, collected with only female specimens from the interstitial habitat at several locations in the Philippines and Japan (Okinawa Island), is reported here as Aequinoctiella sp. Thus, the new genus appears to have a wide distribution in the Indo-Pacific, ranging from Japan, to the Philippines and Indonesia. The closest affinities of Aequinoctiella gen. nov. are with the genus Klieonychocamptoides Noodt, 1958.