[5] This species demonstrates sexual selection through female choice, as indicated by an evolutionary enhancement of extra tibia bristles occurring in certain D. silvestris populations in the last 700,000 years.

[9] These extra bristles create an irregular third row, which is related to the fly's courtship ritual and may have arisen due to geographic isolation from ancestral south and west populations.

[11] There are three phylogenetically early chromosomal inversions in D. silvestris that are associated with elevation changes, possibly reflecting an adaptive shift to altitude that contributed to evolution in Hawaiian Drosophila.

[13][20] D. silvestris and other recently evolved planitibia species emit less complicated and higher frequency courtship songs compared to this subgroup's more ancestral flies.

[2] Polygenic inheritance may be responsible for this large between-species difference in male head morphology; it may have evolved to aid females in species-specific identification of mates.

[1] These species are mostly sympatric and broadly overlap in inhabiting geographic regions, though D. heteroneura prefers living in the understory of rainforests while D. silvestris typically selects areas of higher altitude.

[8][23] These two species can produce fertile hybrids in the laboratory despite exhibiting reproductive isolation in the wild due to prezygotic barriers like species-specific mating behavior patterns.

[25] This close mtDNA lineage may be due to early hybridization between the two species in Hualalai or other areas in west Hawaii where the ancestral two-row population resides.

[5][16] Adult males signal their willingness to mate by creating their lek, which incorporates a small segment 15–60 cm (5.9–23.6 in) long of a horizontal tree fern or bare plant stem.

[7] In the first step of courtship, one of the sexes laterally extends their wings and repeatedly waves them in air in the shape of a circle; this is followed by the male standing in front of the female.

[4][28] In addition to producing simple courtship songs by vibrating his wings, the male will create low-amplitude purring noises by bobbing his abdomen.

[16] The additional 20–30 tibial bristles found in D. silvestris males located in north and east Hawaii populations are a secondary sex characteristic and indicate the influence of sexual selection.

[34] D. silvestris females deposit their eggs on the decaying or fermenting bark of principal host plant Clermontia, a large, branched shrub scattered throughout the understory of Hawaiian rainforests.

Larvae and adults primarily feed on the fermenting bark of Clermontia due to its relatively large size compared to other Hawaiian lobelioids.

[7] Vespula pensyIvanica, a species of yellowjacket, is invasive to Hawaii and preys on D. silvestris and other members of Drosophila, resulting in significant population decline.

[38] Feral pigs, goats, and other mammals will eat host plants like Clermontia and trample on terrain, threatening the habitat and food sources for these flies.

[38] D. silvestris and other "picture-winged" flies interact with host plants and other organisms in Hawaiian rainforests, making them helpful for measuring the health of the ecosystem.