Dear Mike, thank you for your lead. I looked at the photos on google as well as yours and found this one.; "Heliconius charitonius. Zebra Heliconius; Zebra Longwing". It is on flicker but I cant transfer the photograph. It looked exactly as I saw it with wings up together. Would this butte...

Thank you Chris,
I have looked at a photo of the Jersey. The stripes on the one I saw were more defined and narrower.
My instant thought when I first saw it was, gold thread on black velvet, if that helps.

Hi everyone, I am new to this site. I live in Ivybridge Devon Just 10 miles from Plymouth. Today, 31-7-2011 I saw a fantastic butterfly (it looked to neat to be a moth). It was about 40 to 50mm as it was griping a car tyre with wings folded up. It looked black and had what I think were gold (you may...