A mesophilic bacterium, designated strain YIM 31327T, was isolated from a forest soil sample collected from Yunnan Province, China, and was then investigated using a polyphasic approach. The strain grew optimally at 28-30 degrees C and pH 7.2. The cells were Gram-negative, short, rod-shaped, motile and non-spore-forming with flagella. The major ubiquinone was Q-8 and the cellular fatty acids were C(16 : 0) and C(12 : 0). The DNA G + C content of strain YIM 31327T was 62.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain YIM 31327T was a member of the beta-Proteobacteria, being most closely related to Duganella zoogloeoides, with which it exhibited less than 96 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. On the basis of the phenotypic and genotypic differences between strain YIM 31327T and D. zoogloeoides, a novel species, Duganella violaceinigra sp. nov., is proposed, with YIM 31327T (= CIP 108077T = KCTC 12193T) as the type strain.