A Gram reaction-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated H57B72(T), was isolated from subsurface saline soil of Qaidam basin in the Qinghai province, China. Cells were rod-shaped, strictly aerobic, spore-forming and motile. The isolate grew optimally at 9 % (w/v) NaCl, pH7.5 and 30°C. The cell-wall peptidoglycan of strain H57B72(T) contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15 : 0) (59.97 %) and anteiso-C(17 : 0) (17.14 %). Phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and a glycolipid were found to be the predominant polar lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain H57B72(T) was 37.1mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain H57B72(T) was a member of the genus Virgibacillus and was most closely related to Virgibacillus salinus DSM 21756(T) (98.3 % gene sequence similarity). The level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain H57B72(T) and V. salinus DSM 21756(T) was 8.5 %. Based on the phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic data presented, strain H57B72(T) represents a novel species, for which the name Virgibacillus subterraneus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H57B72(T) (=DSM 22441(T) =CGMCC 1.7734(T)).