The macaques constitute a genus Macaca of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae

The macaques constitute a genus (Macaca) of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques are widespread over the Old World, especially Asia. Macaques are principally frugivorous, although their diet also includes seeds, leaves, flowers, and tree bark, and some, such as the crab-eating macaque, subsist on a diet of invertebrates and occasionally small vertebrates. All macaque social groups are arranged around dominant, matriarchal females.Aside from humans (genus Homo), the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to the Indian subcontinent, and in the case of the barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), to North Africa and Southern Europe. Twenty-three macaque species are currently recognized, including some of the monkeys best known to non-zoologists, such as the rhesus macaque (M. mulatta), and the barbary macaque, a colony of which lives on the Rock of Gibraltar. Although several species lack tails, and their common names refer to them as apes, these are true monkeys, with no greater relationship to the true apes than any other Old World monkeys. Instead, this comes from an earlier definition of 'ape' that included primates generally.In some species, skin folds join the second through fifth toes, almost reaching the first metatarsal joint.