Caulobacter phage 46, previously reported to adsorb specifically to bacterial flagella, was shown here to attach to pili more frequently than to flagella. Phage 46 was shown to contain double-stranded DNA by circular dichroism spectroscopy and thermal denaturation accompanied by a hyperchromic shift at 260 nm. Morphologically, phage 46 fits group B2 (H.-W. Ackermann, in A. I. Laskin and H. A. Lechevalier, ed., Handbook of Microbiology, vol. 1, p. 638-643, 1973) with a long, noncontractile tail and an elongate head. Pilus-less mutants of the host Caulobacter vibrioides CV6 are phage 46 resistant, whereas flagellum-less mutants, which produce pili, are phage susceptible. Treatments of susceptible cells which remove or immobilize pili and flagella, e.g., blending or cyanide, inhibited phage 46 infection. Our evidence suggests that phage 46 initiates infection in a manner similar to the pilus-specific phages for Pseudomonas described previously (