A tree snake from Anjouan and Mayotte in the Comoros archipelago, mainly active at night.
Males have grey backs with dark markings, while females show reddish, brownish or yellowish colours. Colour varies markedly between the sexes within this species.
Lycodryas maculatus has a head distinct from its neck and an elongated tail. An Anjouan specimen described in the revision measured 688 millimetres from snout to vent, with a 180-millimetre tail. The Mayotte name-bearing specimen measured 757 and 218 millimetres respectively. Both have vertically elongated pupils.
The 2012 revision re-examined historical name-bearing specimens. A male described in 1858 under a different genus originally carried a Central American locality. Comparing head and tail scales, the researchers assigned it to the Anjouan population and tentatively adopted the older name maculatus. For the Mayotte subspecies comorensis, the original type could not be located. The researchers selected a replacement type: a male found beneath bark near Moya on Petite-Terre on 7 February 2010. The revision connected historical museum specimens with recently collected island snakes.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Introduced mammals are identified as a conservation pressure on the Mayotte population. A 2024 analysis by the French IUCN Committee lists feral cats, black rats, tenrecs and small Indian civets as pressures on Lycodryas maculatus in Mayotte, where the species is represented by subspecies comorensis.