AUSTIN, Texas (UPI) -- Even centipedes are bigger in Texas -- bigger and a lot more terrifying. In an apparent bid to freak out the Internet, Texas Parks and Wildlife shared a photo on its Facebook page of a massive Texas redhead centipede found in the state's Hill Country. The bid was successful.

Scolopendra heros is a centipede species found south of the border in Mexico, as well as in the states of south-central and southwestern United States -- ranging as far east as Arkansas and Missouri, and as far west as Arizona and New Mexico.

The massive centipede, commonly called a Texas or giant redhead, preys upon lizards and toads. They've been observed to sometimes catch and eat rodents and snakes.

Boasting between 21 and 23 pairs of legs, the centipede typically measures 6.5 inches in length, but can stretch up to 8 inches. The redhead doesn't always have a red head; being aposematically colored, the body and head can take on a variety of red and black patterns.

According the Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, there's a story that a Civil War soldier died after being bitten on the chest by a Texas redhead while sleeping. The story is a tall tale, but the centipede does possess poisonous fangs.

Its fangs are actually a modified pair of legs, able to pierce the skin and deliver a painful toxin. In fact, all of the centipede legs are capable (to some degree) of "biting" and delivering toxin.

As frightening as they sound and appear, the centipede's bite is typically accompanied by only momentary pain and swelling. Occasionally, nausea and headaches follows -- and more rarely necrosis and cardiac arrest.

"While caution is certainly warranted when dealing with the giant redheaded centipede," the magazine explains, downright terror is probably an overreaction.

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