Two strains, PB34^T and PB261^T, were isolated from grass soil sampled in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence studies showed the two bacteria to be clearly affiliated with the phylum Actinobacteria and most closely related to the genus Geodermatophilus , showing 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to the type strains of species of the genus Geodermatophilus of 95.0–96.3 % and sharing 98.5 % similarity between the two strains. The two strains were Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, motile and rod-shaped bacteria. The peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The predominant menaquinones were MK-9(H₄) and MK-9(H₀). The major fatty acids were iso-C_15 : 0, iso-C_16 : 0, iso-C_17 : 0 and summed feature 3 (C_16 : 1ω7c and/or C_16 : 1ω6c) for strain PB34^T and iso-C_14 : 0, iso-C_15 : 0, iso-C_16 : 0 and C_16 : 0 for strain PB261^T. The G+C contents of the genomic DNA of strains PB34^T and PB261^T were 73.2 mol% and 74.1 mol%, respectively. Thus, based on the evidence of a polyphasic study, it is proposed that strains PB34^T and PB261^T represent two novel species, for which the names Geodermatophilus soli sp. nov. (type strain PB34^T = KCTC 19880^T = JCM 17785^T) and Geodermatophilus terrae sp. nov. (type strain PB261^T = KCTC 19881^T = JCM 17786^T) are proposed.