From the fact that it was named after a living man, Osbert Salvin, rather than a character in ancient literature, we know that this butterfly is somewhat rare and was discovered only recently. It is uncommon in Central America, from Mexico to Belize. It may be most common in Guatemala. (Nobody seems positive about this; in fact some sites disagree about where to look for the butterfly.)
Most Kite Swallowtails are recognized by having some combination of dark and pale stripes. The pale color may look yellow, white, green, or blue, depending on the light and the condition of the wings. The dark color may look black or brown. Salvini is recognized by having more pale and less dark color than the other Kites have. It can be called a white butterfly with narrow black stripes. The upper wing surface is white with narrow black borders and one narrow stripe crossing the tip of the forewing; the underwings show two narrow stripes, one running together with the border. Some sites list "Albino Zebra" as a nickname for this species.
Photo by Markg, who notes that it was taken in Belize in May.
Fair use of photo by Rich Hoyer at https://birdingblogs.com/2010/richhoyer/mayan-mexico-%E2%80%93-a-taste-of-the-tropics , where he mentions that, even in the present century, this may have been the first photo of a living salvini ever published. Photos of this butterfly remain hard to find.
Females are thought to be larger than males. The wingspan of a male museum specimen was recorded as 3.6 inches.
While a few of its haunts are known well enough that some tours list it as a species tourists are likely to see, its life cycle remains undocumented. Typically male Swallowtails spend much of their time sipping water, clean or polluted, at puddles and females spend more of their time finding suitable places to lay their eggs. The scant documentation of this species suggests that its behavior pattern is typical, but nobody is certain about this.
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