Halophilic archaeal strain GX31(T) was isolated from a marine solar saltern of China. The cells of the strain were rod-shaped and lysed in distilled water, stain Gram-negative and formed red-pigmented colonies. It was neutrophilic, and required at least 0.9 M NaCl and 0-1.0 M MgCl2 for growth under the optimum growth temperature of 37 A degrees C. The major polar lipids of the strain were phosphatidylglycerol (PG), PG phosphate methyl ester, PG sulphate, and two major glycolipids chromatographically identical to sulphated mannosyl glucosyl diether (S-DGD-1) and mannosyl glucosyl diether (DGD-1), respectively. Trace amounts of two unidentified lipids were also detected. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain GX31(T) was closely related to the members of Halobellus of the family Halobacteriaceae with similarities of 94.1-98.7 %. Strain GX31(T) showed 89.8-95.4 % of the rpoB' gene similarity to the members of Halobellus. The DNA G+C content of strain GX31(T) was 66.8 mol%. Strain GX31(T) showed low DNA-DNA relatedness with two most related members of the genus Halobellus. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic properties suggest that strain GX31(T) represent a novel species of the genus Halobellus, for which the name Halobellus litoreus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GX31(T) (=CGMCC 1.10387(T) = JCM 17118(T)).