The 16S rRNA gene sequences of Sphingomonas carotinifaciens L9-754^T and Sphingomonas aeria B093034^T possess 99.71 % sequence similarity. Further studies were undertaken to clarify the taxonomic assignments of these species. Whole-genome comparisons showed that S. aeria B093034^Tand S. carotinifaciens L9-754^T shared 96.9 % average nucleotide identity, 98.4 % average amino acid identity and 76.1 % digital DNA–DNA hybridization values. These values exceeded or approached the recommended species delineation threshold values. Furthermore, a phylogenetic tree based on 41 of the most conserved genes provided additional evidence that S. aeria B093034^T and S. carotinifaciens L9-754^T are very closely related. Based on this evidence we propose the reclassification of S. aeria Xue et al. 2018 as a later heterotypic synonym of S. carotinifaciens Madhaiyan et al. 2017.