Using natricine snakes to test how prey type and size affect predatory behaviors and performance.

Our findings for the clade of three species suggest that coiling evolved ancestral to the crayfish specialists (; ), and envenomation by subsequently evolved as an additional means of subduing formidable prey. The proximate benefits observed for coiling and envenomation in support the evolutionary scenario that both traits evolved to enhance the feeding performance for more formidable prey.