A Gram-stain negative, white-pigmented bacterial strain, designated D78T, was isolated from soil obtained from Dokdo in Korea. The strain was observed to be aerobic, asporogenous and rod-shaped. The strain was observed to grow at 15–40 °C (optimum 37 °C), at pH 6.0–8.0 (optimum 7.0–7.5) and in the presence of 0–1 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetically, the strain was found to be closely related to members of the genus Dongia and showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Dongia mobilis LM22T and Dongia rigui 04SU4-PT of 94.6 and 94.4 %, respectively. The major fatty acids were identified as C16:0, C19:0 cyclo ω8c and summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c and/or C18:1 ω6c). Q-10 was identified as the only ubiquinone. The polar lipids profile was found to contain phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyphosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified aminolipid and three unidentified polar lipids. The DNA G+C content of the strain was found to be 54.7 mol%. Based on the phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic data, strain D78T represents a novel species in the genus Dongia, for which the name Dongia soli sp. nov. (=KACC 13941T =LMG 29193T) is proposed.