The taxonomic position of bacterial strain, designated 15J9-4(T), recovered from a beach soil sample on Jeju Island, South Korea, was established using a polyphasic approach. Strain 15J9-4(T) was assigned to phylum Bacteroidetes within the family Cytophagaceae based on 16S rRNA gene similarities. The closest phylogenetic relatives with validly published names were Spirosoma panaciterrae Gsoil 1519(T) (94.2% similarity) and Spirosoma luteolum 16F6E(T) (94.1%). Cells were rod-shaped, Gram-stain-negative, and non-motile. The isolate grew on NA, R2A, TSA, and LB agar. The temperature limits for growth were 10 and 30 A degrees C with an optimum at 25 A degrees C and the pH range was 7-8. Menaquinone MK-7 was the predominant respiratory quinone. The major cellular fatty acids comprised summed feature 3 (C-16:1 omega 6c/C-16:1 omega 7c, 30.2%), C-16:1 omega 5c (22.2%), iso C-15:0 (12.9%), and C-16:0 (8.8%). Phosphatidylethanolamine was identified as the major polar lipid. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 48.4 mol%. The results obtained from the polyphasic analyses allowed for the genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain 15J9-4(T) from recognized Spirosoma species. Therefore, the isolate is considered to represent a novel species in the genus Spirosoma, for which the name Spirosoma terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 15J9-4(T) (= KCTC 52035(T) = JCM 31994(T)).