He specialised in world Protura, Thysanura, Diplura and Isoptera, but also worked on Hymenoptera, Myriapoda and Italian Diptera.

A keen young naturalist, he became assistant to Giovanni Battista Grassi (1854–1925), Director of the Institute of Anatomical Research of the University of Rome.

In 1904, Silvestri became Director of the Institute of Entomology and Zoology at the agricultural college in Portici (the Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria, now Faculty of Agriculture), a position he held for 45 years.

Filippo Sivestri has been commemorated in the names of the following: a square in his home town, Bevagna; a high school in Portici, the town where he worked and died; and a street in Rome (00134 Borgo Lotti).

A species of South American worm lizard, Amphisbaena silvestrii is named in his honor.