Three strains (YIM-HL1107T, YIM-HL1045, YIM-HL1112) representing a novel yeast species were isolated from surface water samples collected from the Caohai region of Dianchi Lake in Yunnan, south-western China. On the basis of morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics and sequence analysis of the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, they were assigned to a novel species of the genus Hannaella. The closest relative to the novel species was Hannaella pagnoccae, but it showed 6.3 % nucleotide differences (34 nt substitutions out of 541 nt) in the D1/D2 region of the LSU rRNA gene and 9.3-9.6 % nucleotide differences (40-41 substitutions and 7-8 gaps out of 430 nt) in the ITS region. The name Hannaella dianchiensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM-HL1107T (=CBS 14191T=CCTCC AY 2015009T), and the MycoBank number is MB 816297.