During courtship, Mantella laevigata exhibits "chinning" behavior: the male rests his throat on the female's head, while calling softly, in a single-note call that is distinct from the louder, double-note advertisement call. The male then leads the female, with his courtship call, and by returning to her often to "chin" her often, to potential oviposition sites, places where they might mate, and where she would lay her eggs. Females are likely to engage in these complex and lengthy courtship rituals for over an hour, then abandon the male and the courtship upon being led to an unsatisfactory site.

So females are choosy, but why? Some of the risks to their eggs (and later, their tadpoles), if females lay them in the wrong place, include being eaten by conspecific tadpoles (cannibalism), being eaten by tadpoles of other well-breeding frogs (good old fashioned predation), or drying out and dying when short droughts occur.