A novel facultatively anaerobic sulfur-reducing bacterium, designated strain Phe91(T), was isolated from petroleum-contaminated groundwater in an underground crude oil storage cavity at Kuji in Iwate, Japan. Cells of strain Phe91(T) were slightly curved rods with single polar flagella. Optimum growth was observed at pH 7.0 and 30 degrees C. The novel strain utilized elemental sulfur, thiosulfate, sulfite, dithionite, arsenate, nitrate and DMSO as electron acceptors with lactate as an energy and carbon source, but nitrite was not utilized. Microaerophilic growth was also observed. Fumarate, pyruvate, lactate, malate, succinate, hydrogen (with acetate as a carbon source) and formate (with acetate) could serve as electron donors. Fumarate, pyruvate and malate were fermented. The DNA G+C content was 42.7 mol%. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogeny, strain Phe91(T) was affiliated with the genus Sulfurospirillum in the class Epsilonproteobacteria and was most closely related to Sulfurospirillum deleyianum (sequence similarity 97 %). However, the DNA-DNA hybridization value between strain Phe91(T) and S. deleyianum was only 14 %. Based on the physiological and phylogenetic data, Phe91(T) should be classified as a representative of a novel species in the genus Sulfurospirillum; the name Sulfurospirillum cavolei sp. nov. is proposed, with Phe91(T) (=JCM 13918(T)=DSM 18149(T)) as the type strain.