Four novel bacterial strains belonging to the genus Kurthia were isolated from the surface of a weevil of the family Curculionidae (strain 10y-14T), and from bark samples of hybrid poplar, Populus × euramericana (strains 6-3, 2-5 and 06C10-3-14), in Puyang, Henan Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA gene and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) data showed that the four strains form a distinct cluster in the genus Kurthia, indicating that they all belong to a single taxon within the genus. DNA-DNA hybridization levels between strain 10y-4T and Kurthia huakuii LAM0618T and Kurthia massiliensis DSM 24639T were 58.31 and 53.92 %, respectively. This indicates that the four novel strains represent a species distinct from these two closely related species. The DNA G+C content of the novel strains was 42.1-42.6 %. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0.The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unknown phospholipid and unidentified aminophospholipids. The predominant menaquinones were MK-7 (90 %) and MK-6 (10 %). The major cell-wall amino acids were lysine, alanine, glutamic acid and glycine. On the basis of the MLSA and 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogenetic analyses, DNA-DNA reassociation values, DNA base composition, and biochemical and phenotypic characteristics, the four strains are considered to represent a novel species within the genus Kurthia, for which the name Kurthia populi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 10y-14T ( = CFCC 11600T = KCTC 33522T).