We herein describe
Paraharmotrema karinganiense
n. gen., n. sp. Dutton & Bullard (Liolopidae Dollfus, 1934) from specimens infecting the intestine of the serrated hinged terrapin (
Pelusios sinuatus
), east African black mud turtle (
Pelusios subniger
) (both Nwanedzi River, Mozambique), and South African helmeted terrapin (
Pelomedusa galeata
) (North-western Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa). The new genus can be easily differentiated from the other accepted liolopid genera (
Liolope
Cohn, 1902;
Helicotrema
Odhner, 1912;
Harmotrema
Nicoll, 1914;
Dracovermis
Brooks & Overstreet, 1978) by the combination of having a linguliform body approximately 6–9 × longer than wide, tegumental spines/scales, a minute ventral sucker located in the anterior 1/7−1/8 of the body, deeply lobed testes that are transverse and abut the caeca (spanning the intercaecal space), a uterus that is lateral to the anterior testis (not ventral to the anterior testis), a lobed ovary that is dextral and nearest the posterior testis, and a vitellarium that does not extend anteriad to the level of the ventral sucker and that does not fill the intercaecal space. Nucleotide sequences of large subunit ribosomal DNA (
28S
) and internal transcribed space region (
ITS2
) from all analyzed specimens of the new species were identical, respectively; the
28S
sequences differed from that of
Liolope copulans
Cohn, 1902 and from that of
Harmotrema laticaudae
Yamaguti, 1933 by 103 (8%) and 105 (8%) nucleotides, respectively. The
28S
phylogenetic analysis recovered the new genus sister to a clade comprising
L. copulans
and
H. laticaudae
. A key to liolopid genera is provided herein. The present study comprises the first nucleotide-based phylogenetic placement of
Harmotrema
and first record of a liolopid from South Africa or Mozambique. It is the first proposal of a new liolopid genus in 43 yrs, and it documents a second liolopid genus from
P. subniger
while tripling the number of liolopid turtle hosts reported from the continent of Africa.