A novel Gram-stain-positive, slightly halophilic, facultatively alkaliphilic, non-motile, catalase- and oxidase-positive, endospore-forming, rod-shaped, aerobic bacterium, strain JSM 071004(T), was isolated from a sea anemone collected from Neizhou Bay in the South China Sea. Growth occurred with 0.5-10 % (w/v) total salts (optimum 2-4 %) and at pH 6.5-10.0 (optimum pH 8.5) and 4-30 degrees C (optimum 25 degrees C). meso-Diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7) and the polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15 : 0) and iso-C(15 : 0). The genomic DNA G+C content was 39.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain JSM 071004(T) belongs to the genus Bacillus, being related most closely to the type strain of Bacillus agaradhaerens (sequence similarity 97.3 %), followed by the type strains of Bacillus cellulosilyticus (96.2 %), Bacillus clarkii (96.1 %) and Bacillus polygoni (96.0 %). The combination of phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization, phenotypic characteristics and chemotaxonomic data support the proposal that strain JSM 071004(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus neizhouensis sp. nov. is proposed, with JSM 071004(T) (=CCTCC AB 207161(T) =DSM 19794(T) =KCTC 13187(T)) as the type strain.