Ten non-motile, Gram-stain-positive, coagulase-negative staphylococci were isolated from bovine milk and teat apices. All isolates were catalase-positive, with anteiso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0), anteiso-C(17 : 0), iso-C(17 : 0) and C(18 : 0) as predominant fatty acids and diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol as major polar lipids. The results of sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene and four housekeeping genes (rpoB, hsp60, tuf and dnaJ) in combination with tRNA-intergenic spacer length analysis showed that the isolates form a separate branch within the genus Staphylococcus. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the phylogenetically most closely related species are Staphylococcus haemolyticus, S. hominis and S. lugdunensis, with >98.7 % sequence similarity. The DNA G+C content varies from 33.3 to 33.7 mol%, and DNA-DNA hybridization with the nearest neighbours, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, confirmed that the isolates represent a novel Staphylococcus species. All isolates induced a small zone of complete haemolysis on Columbia agar with 5 % sheep blood and exhibited a homogeneous biochemical fingerprint that is discriminative from the phylogenetically most closely related species. Based on these results, it is proposed to classify the ten isolates as Staphylococcus devriesei sp. nov., with strain KS-SP 60(T) (=LMG 25332(T) =CCUG 58238(T)) as the type strain.