Silverfish

The Silverfish is a new mob added in Beta 1.8. Its texture was originally found in the Beta 1.7.3 minecraft.jar. Silverfish hide in stone bricks found in strongholds and in rarely found natural stone-like blocks, and pop out to attack when the blocks are mined. In regular gameplay, Silverfish blocks occur rarely. If left alone, silverfish can re-enter some blocks, including cobblestone. When attacked, Silverfish may awaken nearby Silverfish blocks. This can lead to a terrifying swarm if there are enough in the vicinity. An uncontrolled swarm can quickly destroy dozens of stone bricks within a Stronghold. They scurry away after the player moves a short distance. They have the same sounds as spiders, which is likely a placeholder, but is still in the official 1.8 release. In the 1.8 pre-release, silver fish would dig a hole in the ground.

History
The image, silverfish.png, was added to the mobs folder in the Beta 1.7 update. The silverfish mob was later announced for 1.8.

Jeb confirmed that the silverfish won't be a water mob, ruling out the possibility of the Silverfish being an actual fish.

In the Beta 1.8 update leak, Silverfish can be found in Stone Bricks in Strongholds, although they can also appear elsewhere.

Trivia

 * In real life, silverfish are small, wingless insects that are often found in dark areas in buildings. They are infamous for damaging paper-based products.
 * There are also small ray-finned fish called Silverfish. These were proven unrelated after a tweet from Jeb.
 * The block they spawn from when destroyed is ID 97, when placed it will have the texture of regular stone.
 * Block 97 is mined faster with hands than with tools.
 * As of 1.8 They spawn 1-5 additional Silverfish from nearby Stone, Stone Brick, Mossy Stone Brick, and Cracked Stone Brick when attacked and destroying the block in the process of spawning.
 * Silverfish make the same noises as Spiders in 1.8. This is a placeholder and new sounds were made, but not yet implemented.
 * Silverfish will suffocate and can die if they crawl through a Portal block.
 * Silverfish do drown in water when forced under by a block above or something similar.
 * Silverfish will eat through wood and possibly other blocks.
 * Silverfish can be beaten naturally by using fire without it calling in more of its allies, so long as the player does not hit it directly.
 * Silverfish can ride in minecarts like all mobs but only seem to get into them when jumping, they push them around when just crawling into them.
 * Silverfish can be killed by explosions without more spawning.
 * The stone-like block that produces silverfish when broken is often used in some servers as a griefing in which the griefer places the stone-like blocks in players houses and the player gets attacked by silverfish as soon as they break it.
 * It should also be noted that Silverfish will spawn from other stone-based blocks around them if one is attacked. Griefers may utilize this by placing a block 97 in someone's house and breaking it, subsequently causing all nearby stone-base blocks such as cobblestone, to break and spawn even more Silverfish.
 * Silverfish do not seem to cause lag on Servers, even in massive groups.