A Gram staining negative, rod-shaped, aerobic bacterial strain J5-3(T) with a single polar flagellum was isolated from coking wastewater collected from Shaoguan, Guangdong, China. It was motile and capable of optimal growth at pH 6-8, 30 A degrees C, and 0-2 % (w/v) NaCl. Its predominant fatty acids were 11-methyl C-18:1 omega 7c (29.2 %), C-16:0 (20.6 %), C-19:0 cyclo omega 8c (18.2 %), C-18:0 (11.0 %), and C-18:1 omega 7c/C-18:1 omega 6c (10.9 %) when grown on trypticase soy agar. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, two unknown glycolipids (GL1, GL2), and two unknown phospholipid (PL1, PL2). The predominant ubiquinone was Q-10, and the genome DNA G+C content was 61.7 mol %. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain J5-3(T) belonged to the family Hyphomicrobiaceae in Alphaproteobacteria. It shared the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 93.8-96.1 % with the genus Devosia, 94.5-94.8 % with the genus Pelagibacterium, and < 92.0 % with all the other type strains in family Hyphomicrobiaceae. It can be distinguished from the closest phylogenetic neighbors based on several phenotypic and genotypic features, including alpha-galactosidase activity, tetracycline susceptibility, major fatty acid composition, polar lipid profile, DNA gyrase B subunit (gyrB) gene sequence, and random-amplified polymorphic DNA profile. Therefore, we consider strain J5-3(T) to represent a novel species of a novel genus within the family Hyphomicrobiaceae, for which the name Paradevosia shaoguanensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Paradevosia shaoguanensis is J5-3(T) (=CGMCC 1.12430(T) =LMG 27409(T)).