Two

As reported before, it is not uncommon that we don't spot Madam for days. In spite of her enormous size - about three inches long by now - she is very good in hiding herself from us. The plant is such a jungle, and she has such a perfect camouflage, that if she does not want to be seen, she is not seen.
The day before yesterday, I spotted her climbing up the fly screen on the living room window. Well, not having seen her for a while, I wondered if this was really her. In my memory, she must have been bigger. Wasn't she as big as long as most of the leafs on the plant by now? My memory could be wrong, so I went through the numerous photos I had made in the last month or so. Although no conclusive evidence presented itself, I began to think that maybe we had a second specimen here.
And tonight, this nagging suspicion was confirmed - during our almost ritualistic search of her in the plant, after the kids are in bed, I spotted Madam, and my wife spotted ... a mini-me version of her.
Where in the world did that come from?
We are totally puzzled, because the mini-me is about the size Madam had a month ago, so this specimen must have had hatched about two weeks ago. That would also explain the latest exuvia that I found, which I always thought to be too small for the size Madam is now. At the time, I thought that it maybe had dried up and shrunken significantly. No, turns out that this very probably was the first exuvia of mini-me Mantis.
So, we have a regular Mantid heaven here now.
My hypothesis is, that mini-me Mantis is a male, and that he is in grave danger to be eaten by the much larger female Madam, once he reaches adulthood and tries to have sex with her.
This will be very, very interesting weeks that are before us, to say the least.

This is Madam. Notice her changed eyes - much more articulated than before, and actually brown by now. I had to use flash, which is usually a no-no in nature photography. But it was pitch black outside and this was the only way to get her picture. I found her at her customary spot - she is kind of a creature of habit, having her favorite spot in the plant, so it seems, and going there every night.

And this is mini-me Mantis - shot from inside our living room, through he fly screen of the window. Madam was about fifteen inches to the upper right at this time, and I am not sure if she already knows of the presence of mini-me. Mantids are known to be cannibalistic in certain circumstances, and she would have no problem to catch the much smaller mini-me.