The Adelaide pygmy bluetongue skink shelters in holes that, rather than being excavated by the skink itself, are quarried by wolf spiders and trapdoor spiders (lycosid and mygalomorph spiders). The almost vertical burrow, measuring about 24 centimetres deep (2), serves as a shelter during the day when the temperature is too hot, as a retreat if threatened while basking, as a place from which to ambush passing prey, and as a birthing site (7).
The Adelaide pygmy bluetongue skink gives birth to live young. Females give birth to litters of one to four young in maternal burrows in February or March (2). After the juveniles reach two weeks of age, they leave the burrow and inhabit smaller, separate burrows. Breeding age is reached at about 20 months (2).
The diet of this skink consists mainly of a wide range of invertebrates, such as spiders, grasshoppers, cockroaches and ants, but it will also feed on plants (2). It is largely a “sit-and-wait” predator, lying at the entrance of its burrow and waiting to launch a surprise attack on any prey item that comes too close, but it may also forage further away from the burrow (2).
Although active during the day, the Adelaide pygmy bluetongue skink is a shy, cryptic reptile. As well as its body colouration providing good camouflage in its habitat, it often lies partially emerged from the entrance of its burrow, enabling it to retreat rapidly back into safety at the first sign of danger. Once inside its burrow, the lizard wedges its relatively large head, heavily armoured with large, thick scales, against the entrance (2). By blocking the entrance, and presenting only a heavily armoured head, few predators small enough to have access to the hole would be strong enough to prise the skink out, providing the Adelaide pygmy bluetongue skink with an excellent defence strategy. On the rare occasions when a skink forages away from the burrow, it will freeze if alerted to the presence of a potential enemy (2).