An aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, yellow-pigmented, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium designated strain KMM 9005(T) was isolated from a sediment sample collected from the Sea of Japan seashore. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain KMM 9005(T) belonged to the genus Luteimonas and was most closely related to Luteimonas cucumeris KCTC 23627(T) (96.5 % sequence similarity) and Luteimonas aquatica LMG 24212(T) (96.1 % sequence similarity). Strain KMM 9005(T) was characterized by the presence of thin fimbriae, the major ubiquinone Q-8, by the predominance of iso-C17 : 1 followed by iso-C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 in its fatty acid profile, weak hydrolytic capacity and the inability to assimilate most organic substrates. Based on these distinctive phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, strain KMM 9005(T) represents a novel species of the genus Luteimonas, for which the name Luteimonas vadosa sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KMM 9005(T) ( = NRIC 0881(T) = JCM 18392(T)).