These blotched blue-tongues like other blue-tongues are solitary animals except during mating season. Males and females emerge from hibernation at different times. The males come out in late September while the females come forth in late October. Mating occurs soon after in the months of November and December. Studies done at the University of Tasmania show that males begin to produce their sperm as early as the previous fall so that only the final stages of sperm production occurs in the spring. It is at this time that males fight aggressively among themselves. Furthermore the actual coital process can be very rough and violent in manner. Afterwards, females carry the scrape marks from the male's biting (Jones and Edwards 1998)

 

After impregnation, the embryos develop in their mother's oviduct with the help of an exceptionally well-developed placenta. The placenta contains a large yolky egg which supplies the nutrition for the developing young. The clutch size is generally around six. Earlier studies that put the clutch size at 25 have been dismissed because the strain would have been too much on the mother. At birth, the newborns eat the placental membrane. Within a few days, they willl shed their skin for the first time. Subsequently, the young are on their own and disperse soon after. There is virtually no parental care. Even though they are now fully independent, they will not be sexually mature for four to five years. (Shea 1997)

 

Because of the great toll on female lizards during their pregnancy, they are likely to only reproduce every other year. Males are reproductively active every year (Shea 1997).

 

Key Reproductive Features: Gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)