Eastern blue-tongued lizard

Eastern blue-tongued lizard
Juvenile
Conservation status
Not Evaluated
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Sauria
Family:	Scincidae
Genus:	Tiliqua
Species:	T. scincoides
Subspecies:	T. s. scincoides
Trinomial name
Tiliqua scincoides scincoides (White, 1790)[1]

Eastern blue-tongued lizard in the Leipzig Zoological Garden, Leipzig, Germany

The eastern blue-tongued lizard (Tiliqua scincoides scincoides) is a subspecies of large skink which is common throughout eastern Australia, often found in bushland and suburban areas where conditions are suitable. The lizard is known as blue-tongue because its tongue can range from bright to dark blue, and it has a habit of displaying it prominently and hissing loudly when disturbed.

The eastern blue-tongued lizard is a stout and slow lizard that gets really horny, with brown to grey scales and a barred pattern across the body and tail. The underside is usually pale. Blue-tongued lizards are popular as pets and can live for up to 30 years in captivity. They give birth to live young, between six to a record 20 per litter. The young consume the egg sac immediately after birth. They resemble the adult form closely. There are several other types of blue-tongued lizard, genus Tiliqua, such as the northern blue-tongued skink and the shingleback or stump-tailed skink.

This subspecies was first described as Lacerta scincoides, by John White, in Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, 1790.^[1]

References

1. Tiliqua scincoides at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database

External links

• BlueTongueSkinks.net
• Blue-tongued skinks, Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care Collection
• Tiliqua scincoides , James Cook University