A novel Gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming, thermophilic actinomycete, designated strain YIM 77521(T), was isolated from a sandy soil sample collected at Rehai National Park, Tengchong, Yunnan province, south-west China. The strain formed branched substrate mycelia and no fragmentation was found. Masses of short, straight or irregular chains of three to eight warty ornamented spores were borne from aerial mycelia. The strain contained meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall and the whole-cell sugars contained mannose, galactose, glucose and ribose. The predominant menaquinones were MK-9(H(4)), MK-9(H(6)) and MK-9(H(8)). The diagnostic polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyphosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine and N-acetylglucosamine-containing phospholipids. The major fatty acids were iso-C(16 : 0), C(17 : 0) 10-methyl and C(18 : 0). The DNA G+C content of strain YIM 77521(T) was 73.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain YIM 77521(T) fell within the radiation of the suborder Streptosporangineae and formed a distinct monophyletic lineage adjacent to the family Streptosporangiaceae with a high bootstrap value. On the basis of combined data from the phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses, strain YIM 77521(T) represents a novel genus and species within the family Streptosporangiaceae, for which the name Thermocatellispora tengchongensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 77521(T) ( = DSM 45615(T) = CCTCC AA 2011013(T)).