Does anyone know what this could be?

[Cranebrook]

Yesterday evening (around 7) I saw a strange insect in out garden. It was about 0.5cm long and roundish with small translucant wings. The most stricking thing was it's long (much longer than a bee's), white, silky hair! It flew slow enough for me to catch it and put it on a leaf but, unfortunately it didn't stay there long enough to take a photo.
It was really quite a cute thing!
Any ideas?

[Jason Green]

Morning Cranebrook, and welcome to WAB!

Could you draw it and upload here Login - Wild About Britain Pics, in as much detail as you can remember?

In the interluding time - what part of the insect was the hair on, and what proportion was the hair-length compared to the insect's overall length?

Take care,

Jason

[Cranebrook]

Thanks for the response Jason.
I don't think I could draw this as it was almost without any features other than the 'hair'!
Even with it in my hand it just looked like a small petal until it moved.
There was no distinct head, abdomen and thorax and the wings were quite small and fine (translucant). The hair was creamy white and sleek almost like cat hair and covered the whole body - it lay flat so it looked like each strand was the whole length of the body but I don't think this is possible.
At first I though it might be a moth but I don't thik the wings are right for this.
It actually looked like it belonged in a picture from a children's fairy tail book.
My son also saw it so I know I'm not crazy!