In 2007, the sequences of a number of divergent HRV strains were reported as a result of worldwide molecular investigations into cases of suspected ARTI [26, 31, 33] . Because these strains formed a distinct clade within the existing HRV As, we previously assigned to all Australian and similar New York strains, the title of HRV A2 [31] . Kistler et al. identified similarly divergent strains [32] and Lau et al. used sequence-based criteria to propose that some HRV A2-like strains could be classified as a new species [33] . Our ongoing efforts to characterise additional HRVs led us to catalogue the distinguishing molecular and clinical features of these HRV A2-like strains and to better address their taxonomic placement. We undertook in silico analyses, for the first time using all complete HRV A2 coding sequences and performed a retrospective review of the medical records of cases from which variants of the prototype strain, HRV-QPM, had been previously detected. To date the studies reported herein are the first of their kind to have been conducted on a single HRV strain.