The appearance of the blotched blue - tongued lizard is hinted
in its scientific name: Tiliqua nigrolutea. Nigro and lutea mean
black and yellow respectively. Indeed, this lizard is usually
dark brown or black with yellow, cream or pink blotches on it.
Although the blue-tongues are the largest members of the skink
family (Scincidae), many of their characteristics differ from
that of an average skink. First of all, they have an unusual
body shape with a stout torso, short limbs and a thick, short
tail. Furthermore, unlike smaller skinks, blue-tongues rarely
lose their tails. There are also differences between the males
and females of the species. The males have proportionally bigger
head and a more heavyset body. This is due to the shape of the
two hemipenes (the male copulatory organs). Females are longer
in length ((27-30cm to the males' 25-27cm). Because of this, the
females are greater in mass weighing between 350 - 450g while
males stay within the 300-350g range. (Cogger 2000, Jones and
Edwards 1998). Oth