A bacterial strain, designated VA24(T), was isolated from forest soil of the Changbai Mountains, Heilongjiang province, China. Cells of strain VA24(T) were Gram-reaction-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, long rods, 0.3-0.5×2.0-3.0 μm in size and were motile by means of a subpolar flagellum. Strain VA24(T) was oxidase-positive and catalase-negative. Growth occurred at 21-36 °C, pH 5-10 and in 0-2 % (w/v) NaCl but did not occur at 37 °C. The predominant respiratory quinone was Q-8, the major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine and the major cellular fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (14.9 %), iso-C(17 : 1)ω9c (14.1 %), iso-C(17 : 0) (10.8 %) and iso-C(16 : 0) (10.3 %). The DNA G+C content was 67.4 mol% (T(m)). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain VA24(T) was closely related to Frateuria aurantia IFO 13300(T) with 96.9 % sequence similarity. DNA-DNA relatedness of strain VA24(T) to F. aurantia DSM 6220(T) was 15.8 %. Based on its phenotypic and genotypic features, strain VA24(T) represents a novel species of the genus Frateuria, for which the name Frateuria terrea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is VA24(T) (=CGMCC 1.7053(T) =NBRC 104236(T)).