Plecturocebus is one of three genera of titi monkeys.

Historically, these monkeys were monogeneric, being placed in a single genus: Callicebus Thomas, 1903.

Owing to the great diversity found across titi monkey species, a new genus-level taxonomy was proposed in 2016 that recognises three genera within the subfamily Callicebinae; Plecturocebus Byrne et al., 2016 for the Amazonian and Chaco titis of the moloch and donacophilus groups; Cheracebus Byrne et al., 2016 for the species of the torquatus group (Widow titis); and Callicebus Thomas, 1903 sensu stricto, for species of the Atlantic Forest personatus group.

[1] Plecturocebus is derived from the Latin forms of three Greek words: plektos, meaning twist or plait, oura, meaning tail, and kebos, meaning long-tailed monkey.

All together, this refers to the behavior of many titi monkeys to intertwine their tails when they sit next to each other.