Summary The taxonomic relationships between Clostridium bifermentans and C. sordellii were reinvestigated by numerical taxonomy, studies of DNA-DNA homology and DNA duplex thermal stability, and by analysis of cell-wall sugar components. Although the results indicate that both species may be grouped into one geno-species, C. sordellii strains could be differentiated from C. bifermentans strains on the basis of a few phenetic criteria that include the inability to ferment mannose and sorbitol, the absence of mannose in the cell wall, the production of urease, the absence of arginine deaminase activity, and susceptibility to inhibition of growth by mannose.