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The characteristics of ATCC 11337, the type strain of Spirillum lunatum Williams and Rittenberg 1957, do not fit the original description of the species. Cultures of this same strain held by the National Collection of Marine Bacteria under the number 54 appear to consist of two kinds of organisms: (i) relatively small, short, vibrio-shaped rods having single flagella, capable of growing in the presence or absence of seawater and of catabolizing certain sugars, incapable of forming coccoid bodies, and having a deoxyribonucleic acid base composition of 63 to 64 mol% guanine plus cytosine (these organisms closely resemble those found in cultures of ATCC 11337), and (ii) relatively large organisms having a typical spirillum morphology with bipolar tufts of flagella, requiring seawater for growth, capable of forming coccoid bodies, incapable of catabolizing sugars, and having a deoxyribonucleic acid base composition of 45 mol% guanine plus cytosine. The larger organisms have been placed in a new subspecies of Oceanospirillum maris, O. maris subsp. williamsae, the type strain of which is ATCC 29547. The smaller organisms do not appear to belong to either the genus Oceanospirillum or the genus Aquaspirillum, and their classification is not yet apparent. Because the name Spirillum lunatum has been a source of confusion, it is requested that the Judicial Commission place this name on the list of rejected names as a nomen confusum.