Moulting

Today, I noticed a somewhat sunburnt Mantis hanging from one of the branches of the plant. At first, I thought that Mini-Me had changed the color from green to brown, as Madam had done gradually as a nymph, only with her it was from brown to green.
But then, after observing it for a while, I noticed that it did not move - must be an exuvia!
My plan was always, to eventually collect of of those for closer examination, so I fetched some plastic gizmo out of the kitchen (salad grippers??), and a Ziplock bag. Gently, very gently, I pushed away some leafs and some branches and tried to apply the gizmo so that the delicate hull would not ... WOW! It was by no means an exuvia - it was Mini-Me, jumping to the next branch!
So I took my gizmo and my bag and went back inside - what a surprising encounter!
Then, because I have had enough excitement for that evening, I went to Publix for some milk and eggs.
Coming back after twenty minutes or so, I routinely checked back with the plant and saw ... Madam hanging there hed down on a branch, maybe ten inches away from Mini-Me, who was just in the process of shedding the old skin!
So now we finally a couple of things - firstly, that both Mantids knew from each other, because they were clearly in each others field of view. Secondly, that Madam had not eaten Mini-Me yet - a fate we assumed had befallen the poor devil, because we had not seen him for a few days. And finally, Mini-Me was indeed a boy, and Madam was indeed a girl - male Mantids have wings, which Mini-Me clearly showed after he was out of the exuvia, and female Mantids have none, or just very short, unusable wings, and we could not detect wings on Madam so far.
As I stated before, that will be a most interesting summer, having a male and a female Mantis living in the same plant, right before our eyes!
After the whole exuvia shedding, Mini-Me hung just there, head down like a bat, and rested for quite a while. And Madam did not move either. She is about double the size of Mini-Me, but he is growing very fast, and she seems to be finished with that.
He did not loose his brownish color after the moulting, as I expected - the color did obviously not come from the exuvia (which is rather transparent actually), but it was his own skin color. Strangely enough, his legs are the same green color as Madam's (and the the same color as the branches of the plant), so this gives him a somewhat patchy appearance. I am anxious to see, whether this color stays, or whether it changes to a more camouflage like green pattern.

 
This is Madam, hiding in the thick underbrush of the plant. My wife and I illuminated her with two LED-flashlights.

This is Mini-Me, his back still attached to the exuvia. You can clearly see the difference in size of the old skin to his  "new" body. My guess is, that this will be his final size, or maybe he will shed his skin one more time. Since Madam seems to be all grown up now, and male Mantids are usually much smaller than the females, this could be it for both. We will see ...