The taxonomic position was determined for a soil actinomycete, isolate KM-4927(T), that produced the antibiotic hitachimycin. The strain was assigned to the genus Streptomyces on the basis of 16S rDNA analysis, where it formed a separate clade. The strain is characterized by grey aerial cell mass, spiral spore chains and a rugose spore surface, menaquinones of the MK-9(H(4), H(2), H(6)) types and cell-wall chemotype I. DNA-DNA reassociation with 21 phylogenetically neighbouring Streptomyces type strains showing similar morphological characteristics to strain KM-4927(T) indicated that this isolate is only moderately related to other Streptomyces species. On the basis of genomic and physiological properties, the novel species Streptomyces scabrisporus sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is strain KM-4927(T) (=JCM 11712(T)=NRRL B-24202(T)).