亲代抚育的延迟效益（DBPC）指父母对后代的抚育作用于独立后的后代并提高其适合度的现象。DBPC研究集中于高等脊椎动物，例如灵长类，这些动物亲代抚育时间较长，为亲代对子代的信息传递、技能传授提升提供了可能性。而无脊椎动物一般只进行有限的亲代抚育，因此，DBPC在无脊椎动物中鲜有报道。然而，我们的研究发现大蚁蛛母亲可长期抚育营养独立后的后代，为研究无脊椎动物DBPC提供了可能性。同时，大蚁蛛采取“哺乳”的模式喂养后代，但是其“泌乳”的生理机制却并不清楚。因此，我们计划揭示：1）大蚁蛛亲代抚育过程是否对独立后后代的捕食、反捕食、配偶选择和亲代抚育能力具有促进作用以及如何促进；2）大蚁蛛的“泌乳”生理基础以及其“乳腺”的进化历程。此研究结果很可能将：1）填补无脊椎动物DBPC研究空白；2）发现第一例哺乳动物之外的“乳腺”。这些将促进对亲代抚育和哺乳行为的认知。

Parental care could achieve delayed benefits through enhancing the independent offspring’s adaptation by increasing their survive chance, reproduction success and social ranking. Studies about delayed benefits are mainly focusing on vertebrates, in which parental care is long-lasting, such as primates and cheetah. The long-lasting parental care provides space for parent-sibling information and skill transfer. Invertebrates were thought unlikely to gain delayed benefits due to the restrictions of parental investment. However, our studies revealed that the jumping spider (Toxeus magnus) mother could provide prolonged care to its adult offspring. This finding induced the possibility of delayed benefits in invertebrates. Meanwhile, we also found T. magnus mother adopt “lactation” to provide food for young. However, the physical mechanism of spider milk secretion remains unresolved. Therefore, using T. magnus as study species, we aim to examine: 1) whether parental care could achieve delayed benefits through enhancing offspring’s hunting, predator defense and mate selection skills? And how? 2) What is the physical mechanism of spider “milk” secretion? And how it evolved? These studies will fill the research gaps of delayed benefits of parental care in invertebrates, and mammary gland out of mammals, and enhance our understanding of parental care and lactation.