Spirillum sputigenum Flügge 1886 Vibrio sputigenus Prévot 1940 Selenomonas sputigena is a species of anaerobe Gram-negative bacteria that is found in the upper respiratory tract of humans.

[3] Willoughby Dayton Miller, American dentist, is sometimes attributed as the first to give the systematic classification allegedly in his works in the early 1880s.

[9] In 1906, German bacteriologist, Waldemar Loewenthal, described the cause of the bacterial spiral movement as flagellar motion, mentioning that the bacteria had a single flagellum on the concave side of their bodies.

The simple and inconspicuous structure of the bacterium led Hugo Carl Plaut to redescribed in 1909 as generic bacteria that were only in their developmental stages.

[8] In 1913, Czech zoologist Stanislaus von Prowazek noticed hitherto unknown bacteria from the blood samples of dead African game animals.

[10] The Judicial Commission adopted the formal classification in its 1980 Approved Lists of Bacteria with the type strain of S. sputigena as ATCC 33150 (VPI 10068).

[12] Genetic study in 1985 established that the assigned type strain was inaccurate and showed that it should be ATCC 35185 (or VPI D 19B-28),[3] which the Jusicial Commission approved in 1992.

[13] However, it can take variable forms depending on its growth conditions, such as short and curved "crescent moon"[8] or S-shaped spiral rod.