A bacterial strain, designated KTW-16(T), was isolated from the reef-building coral Stylophora pistillata, collected from southern Taiwan. Strain KTW-16(T) was a Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, pale-yellow, non-motile short rod. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain KTW-16(T) belonged to the genus Paracoccus in the Alphaproteobacteria and exhibited 93.7-96.9 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with type strains of species of the genus Paracoccus (96.9 % with Paracoccus alcaliphilus JCM 7364(T)). Strain KTW-16(T) grew at 15-40 �XC (optimum 35 �XC), at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum pH 8.0) and with 0-9 % NaCl (optimum 5 %). The predominant cellular fatty acids were C??:?�s7c, C??:? cyclo �s8c and C??:?. The major respiratory quinone was Q-10 and the DNA G+C content was 69.1 mol%. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and several unknown polar lipids. The physiological and biochemical tests allowed clear phenotypic differentiation of the isolate from the type strains of already described Paracoccus species. It is evident from the genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analysis that strain KTW-16(T) should be classified in a novel species of the genus Paracoccus, for which the name Paracoccus stylophorae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KTW-16(T) (= LMG 25392(T) = BCRC 80106(T)).