Nepenthes mapuluensis was first collected in 1957 on Mount Ilas Mapulu by A.J.G. 'Doc' Kostermans, the head of the Botanical Division of the Forestry Research Institute at Bogor, on the same expedition in which he collected the type material of N. campanulata. The species was described in 1990 by J. H. Adam and C. C. Wilcock based on a single duplicate collection in the Leiden and Bogor herbaria, designated as Kostermans 14017.