An aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, oxidase- and catalase-positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming, coccoid, creamish-white-coloured bacterium, designated strain R161T, was isolated from soil in Hwaseong, South Korea. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained glycine, glutamic acid, alanine, aspartic acid, serine and lysine, and whole-cell sugars were galactose, rhamnose, glucose and ribose. Strain R161T showed antibacterial and enzyme inhibitory activities. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain R161T formed a lineage within the family Dermacoccaceae, and showed highest sequence similarity with type strains of Calidifontibacter indicus PC IW02T (97.71 % sequence similarity) and Yimella lutea YIM 45900T (97.58 %). The sequence similarity of strain R161T with type strains of members of the genus Dermacoccus was less than 96.5 %. The major menaquinone was MK-8(H4). The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol mannosides. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0, iso-C16 : 1 H, anteiso-C17 : 1ω9c, summed feature 9 (iso-C17 : 1ω9c and/or C16 : 0 10-methyl) and iso-C15 : 0. The DNA G+C content of strain R161T was 73.9 mol%. The DNA-DNA hybridization value between strain R161T and C. indicus JCM 16038T was 52.1 %. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analysis, strain R161T represents a novel species of genus Calidifontibacter, for which the name Calidifontibacter terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Calidifontibacter terrae sp. nov. is R161T (=KEMB 9005-404T=KACC 18906T=JCM 31558T).