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 °C (optimal growth at 28 °C), between pH 6.0 and 9.0 (optimal growth at pH 7.5) and at salinities of 0-2.0&#8202% (w/v) NaCl, growing optimally with 0.5&#8202% (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&#8202%), Novosphingobium aromaticivorans F199(T) (96.9&#8202%) and Novosphingobium subterraneum B0478(T) (96.5&#8202%). 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&#8202:&#82021&#9697c (34.0&#8202%), C16&#8202:&#82021&#9697c and/or iso-C15&#8202:&#82020 2-OH (23.8&#8202%) and C17&#8202:&#82021&#9696c (19.3&#8202%). 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&#8202%, 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) (&#8202=&#8202KACC 17599(T)&#8202=&#8202NBRC 109812(T)&#8202=&#8202NCAIM B 02537(T)).