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I saw the tiniest butterfly today I doubt it wa even 1/3rd of an inch long with the same colouring as a red admiral.I have never seen anything this small before,does anyone know what it is please. XX Jeannine

It could be one called the small heath.

Jeannine - it's almost certainly a moth!  ;) The smallest British butterfly is the Small Blue (cupido minimus) and that has a wingspan of (around) 1". The world's smallest butterfly in the Sinai baton blue - and that's about ½" across. There are far more species of moths than there are of butterflies are some are just as colourful and beautifully marked as butterflies - and much smaller! You didn't notice its antennae, did you? Butterfly antennae are club-shaped at the tips, moths' antennae are sort-of fringed. xxx

I've been looking through my butterflies and moths book to try and find something similar to what you may have seen Jeannine and here's what I've come up with: Small Copper or Brown Argus both very small with a similar colouration to the Red Admiral.

Small Copper pic in this link:  http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/butterfly.php?code=smc

Brown Argus pic in this link:  http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/species/bdata/butterfly.php?code=bra

Small Copper is more orangey coloured in my book.

Getting confused now  ??? Jeannine, did you really mean that it was possibly even smaller than 1/3rd of an inch? That makes it 10mm or less. There ain't no such butterfly (known) in the world!!!! There's a useful size reference site -  www.butterflygarden.co.uk/b_by_size.htm. Hope you identify your little beauty somehow! xxx

Well I might not be that accurate but it was smaller than the width of my thumbnail .A little boy had it between his fingers so I got a good look before I made him let it go. It looks more like the rusty red coloured one in the picture. It might have been a moth, very eye catching. XX Jeannine