During a study of the bacterial community in forest soil of Kyonggi University, Suwon, South Korea, a glistening yellow-pigmented, Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain C-1-16T, was isolated. This strain was non-sporulating, catalase-negative and oxidase-positive. It was able to grow at 20-42 °C, at pH 6.0-9.0 and with 0-0.5 % (w/v) NaCl. This strain was taxonomically characterized by a polyphasic approach. Based on the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain C-1-16T formed a lineage within the family Chitinophagaceae of the phylum Bacteroidetes and closely related to the genera Filimonas(93.53 % sequence similarity), Sediminibacterium(92.52-90.75 %), Lacibacter(91.99-91.19 %) and Parasegetibacter(91.88-91.78 %). Flexirubin-type pigment was present for strain C-1-16T. The only respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7 (MK-7) and the major polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The predominant fatty acids of strain C-1-16T were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C15 : 1 G, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c) and C16 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content of this novel strain was 45.5 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic analysis, strain C-1-16T represents a novel species of a new genus in the family Chitinophagaceae, for which the name Arvibacter flaviflagrans gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Arvibacter flaviflagrans is C-1-16T (=KEMB 900-374T=KACC 18717T=JCM 31293T).