A yellow, rod-shaped, Gram-negative, facultatively aerobic, gliding bacterium, designed strain P7-3-5(T), was isolated from intertidal sand of the Yellow Sea, China. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain P7-3-5(T) formed a distinct lineage within the family Flavobacteriaceae, sharing 94.2-96.9 % sequence similarity with type strains of species of the most closely related genera, including Hyunsoonleella, Jejuia, Marinivirga and Algibacter. The strain grew at 4-40 °C and with 0.5-5.0 % (w/v) NaCl. It reduced nitrate to nitrite and hydrolysed gelatin and DNA. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G and anteiso-C15 : 0 and the major respiratory quinone was MK-6. Polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), three unidentified aminolipids (AL1-3) and four unidentified lipids (L1-4). The genomic DNA G+C content of strain P7-3-5(T) was 32.1 mol%. Data from this polyphasic study suggest that strain P7-3-5(T) represents a novel species in a new genus in the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Arenitalea lutea gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Arenitalea lutea is P7-3-5(T) ( = CGMCC 1.12213(T) = KACC 16457(T)).