A bacterial isolate, designated strain D5(T), was isolated from a soil sample collected from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, and subjected to a taxonomic investigation using a polyphasic approach. Strain D5(T) was aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and motile. Strain D5(T) fell within the evolutionary radius of the genus Massilia in the phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and was most closely related to Massilia plicata 76(T) with 97.3% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. The predominant quinone of strain D5(T) was Q-8. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The major fatty acids were summed feature 3 (comprising C16:1ω7c and/or iso-C15:0 2-OH) and C16:0. These chemotaxonomic data supported the affiliation of strain D5(T) to the genus Massilia. The genomic DNA G+C content was 65.9 mol%. Mean DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain D5(T) and the phylogenetically most closely related species of the genus Massilia, Massilia plicata KCTC 12344(T) and Massilia dura KCTC 12342(T), were 26 and 21%, respectively. Strain D5(T) could be differentiated from recognized species of the genus Massilia by several phenotypic characteristics. It is clear from the data presented that strain D5(T) represents a novel species of the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia lurida sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is D5(T) (=CGMCC 1.10822(T)=KCTC 23880(T)).