A novel actinomycete strain YIM 31724(T) was isolated from a soil sample collected from Dali, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China. The strain is characterized by white to yellow white aerial mycelia, spiral spore chains and smooth spore surface. The cell wall of strain YIM 31724(T) contained LL-diaminopimelic acid (A(2)pm) and traces of meso-A(2)pm. Whole-cell hydrolysates contained mainly glucose and small amounts of galactose and xylose. The menaquinones were MK-9(H(6)) (31%) and MK-9(H(8)) (69%). Phosphatidylethanolamine was the diagnostic phospholipid. The DNA G+C content of strain YIM 31724(T) was 67.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the strain belongs to the genus Streptomyces, with highest similarity to Streptomyces rimosus subsp. rimosus JCM 4667(T) (rRNA gene sequence similarity value of 98.9%) and Streptomyces erumpens DSM 40941(T) (rRNA gene sequence similarity value of 98.7%). Based on its phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, including low DNA-DNA hybridization results, strain YIM 31724(T)(= CCTCC AA204020(T) = KCTC 19076(T)) is proposed as the type strain of a novel species, Streptomyces daliensis sp. nov.