A Gram-staining-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming, yellow and rod-shaped bacterium, designated E-II-3(T), was isolated from ground water at Daejeon in Korea. Strain E-II-3(T) grew between 4 and 45 �XC (optimal growth at 28 �XC), between pH 6.0 and 9.0 (optimal growth at pH 7.5) and at salinities of 0-2.0 % (w/v) NaCl, growing optimally with 0.5 % (w/v) NaCl. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain E-II-3(T) was shown to belong to the genus Novosphingobium and showed closest phylogenetic similarity to 'Novosphingobium ginsenosidimutans' FW-6 (97.7 %), Novosphingobium aromaticivorans F199(T) (96.9 %) and Novosphingobium subterraneum B0478(T) (96.5 %). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and sphingoglycolipid. The predominant ubiquinone and polyamine components were Q-10 and spermidine, respectively. The major fatty acids were C18 : 1�s7c (34.0 %), C16 : 1�s7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH (23.8 %) and C17 : 1�s6c (19.3 %). The DNA G+C content of this novel isolate was 62.7 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain E-II-3(T) and 'N. ginsenosidimutans' KACC 16615, N. aromaticivorans KCTC 2888(T) and N. capsulatum KCTC 22844(T) was 38, 33 and 29 %, respectively. On the basis of polyphasic analysis from this study, strain E-II-3(T) represents a novel species of the genus Novosphingobium for which the name Novosphingobium aquiterrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is E-II-3(T) (= KACC 17599(T) = NBRC 109812(T) = NCAIM B 02537(T)).