A Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, aerobic and terminal-endospore-forming rod-shaped bacterium, strain P5-1T, was isolated from the hindgut of a wood-feeding higher termite, Nasutitermes sp. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain was closely related to Paenibacillus sepulcri CCM 7311T (97.5 % similarity). Growth was observed at 10-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and at pH 5.5-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.5). The DNA G+C content of strain P5-1T was 48.9 mol%. Cells contained menaquinone 7 (MK-7) as the sole respiratory quinone and the major fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0. The cellular polar lipids comprised phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, one unidentified glycolipid and one unidentified aminophospholipid. The diamino acid of the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. Based on the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data obtained within this study, strain P5-1T represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus nasutitermitis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is P5-1T ( = CGMCC 1.15178T = NBRC 111536T).