Stegodyphus lineatus
The act of reproduction, regarding the female, leads to an increase of digestive enzymes. This allows her to eat more prey and to stock more nutrients. The digestive enzymes then start to digest the inside of the organism itself, except for the heart, guts, and mostly the ovaries. Once the offspring are born, and until the mother dies, the mother regurgitates for two weeks the fluids stocked inside as highly nutritive food for the progeny. Ninety-five per cent of the mother's mass is digested by the offspring. They will grow to three times their original size between their birth and dispersion. During the period when female spiders are caring for their hatched offspring, the mothers do not eat, and their offspring only eat the food that the mother regurgitates along with the mother's body at the end of this time.
Exoenzyme
Discovered in 1836, pepsin was one of the first enzymes to be classified as an exoenzyme. The enzyme is first made in the inactive form, pepsinogen by chief cells in the lining of the stomach. With an impulse from the vagus nerve, pepsinogen is secreted into the stomach, where it mixes with hydrochloric acid to form pepsin. Once active, pepsin works to break down proteins in foods such as dairy, meat, and eggs. Pepsin works best at the pH of gastric acid, 1.5 to 2.5, and is deactivated when the acid is neutralized to a pH of 7.