Nature lover Stan Gibbons, of Calne, was amazed to find an extremely rare butterfly in his town centre garden last week.

Mr Gibbons, of The Pippin, noticed the insect when it landed on his buddleia and was delighted to find it was a rare strain of the more common painted lady.

The grandfather-of-two said: “It is quite extraordinary. We have had a very large number of painted lady butterflies in the garden, but what I saw is what I have been calling an albino painted lady.

“I have never in my life seen something quite like this before.

“We have since told all our neighbours to be on the look out but it is too late.”

Mr Gibbons managed to capture the butterfly on camera, and sent copies to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and the charity Butterfly Conservation in a bid to find out more about the unusual creature.

He said: “The Wildlife Trust wrote back and said it was amazing – they have never seen anything like it before.

“The county butterfly recorder said he had checked three books on aberrations, which did not show it or refer to it.

“The people at the butterfly conservation organisation said these butterflies are very rare, but they do sometimes turn up.”

Although Mr Gibbons and his neighbours, Trevor and Betty Cooper, thought the butterfly might have been a marbled white, they soon noticed it had exactly the same markings as a painted lady.

“The next day it had settled, and by chance another painted lady landed,” Mr Gibbons said.

“When I saw them together the penny dropped.

“I noticed that the pattern was identical and the size was identical.

“Unfortunately they were not side by side by the time I got my camera, but I did manage to photograph the two separately.”

When Mr Gibbons was sent the information from the Butterfly Conservation, he realised he had seen something rare and set out to spot it again but without luck.