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Three yeast isolates were obtained from soil and rotting wood samples collected in an Amazonian rainforest biome in Brazil. Comparison of the intergenic spacer 5.8S region and the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit rRNA gene showed that the isolates represent a novel species of the genusSaccharomycopsis. A tree inferred from the D1/D2 sequences placed the novel species near a subclade containingSaccharomycopsis lassenensis,Saccharomycopsis fermentans,Saccharomycopsis javanensis,Saccharomycopsis babjevae,Saccharomycopsis schoeniiandSaccharomycopsis oosterbeekiorum, but with low bootstrap support. In terms of sequence divergence, the novel species had the highest identity in the D1/D2 domains withSaccharomycopsis capsularis, from which it differed by 36 substitutions. In contrast, a phylogenomic analysis based on 1061 single-copy orthologs for a smaller set ofSaccharomycopsisspecies whose whole genome sequences are available indicated that the novel species represented by strain UFMG-CM-Y6991 is phylogenetically closer toSaccharomycopsis fodiensandSaccharomycopsissp. TF2021a (=Saccharomycopsis phalluae). The novel yeast is homothallic and produces asci with one spheroidal ascospore with an equatorial or subequatorial ledge. The nameSaccharomycopsis praedatoriasp. nov. is proposed to accommodate the novel species. The holotype ofSaccharomycopsis praedatoriais CBS 16589^T. The MycoBank number is MB849369.S. praedatoriawas able to kill cells ofSaccharomyces cerevisiaeby means of penetration with infection pegs, a trait common to most species ofSaccharomycopsis.