A Gram-negative, aerobic, heterotrophic bacterium, designated KP1-19 T, was isolated from a 22-year-old volcanic deposit at a site lacking vegetation on the island of Miyake, Japan. Strain KP1-19T was able to use thiosulfate (optimum concentration 10 mM) as an additional energy source. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain KP1-19T was closely related to Limnobacter thiooxidans CS-K2T within the class Betaproteobacteria (97.7% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). The cellular fatty acid profile was characteristic of the genus Limnobacter: the major fatty acids (>5%) were C16 : 0, C16 : 1ω7c and C 18 : 1ω7c and minor amounts of C10 : 0 3-OH were also found. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain KP1-19T and L. thiooxidans LMG 19593T was 18 %. Therefore, strain KP1-19T represents a novel species, for which the name Limnobacter litoralis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KP1-19T (=LMG 24869T =NBRC 105857T =CIP 109929T). © 2011 IUMS.