A new type of sea anemone has been discovered off the coast of north Devon.

Retired teacher Robert Durrant had no idea the 6mm creature was unknown to science when he spotted it in Hele Bay, near Ilfracombe.

He posted a photograph on Facebook and asked experts, but nobody could identify it, so he took it home to his aquarium to feed it.

The breakthrough came when he took a backlit photo, which showed the anemone was transparent and covered in tiny tubercules.

This helped French expert Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat to identify it as a variety of Aiptasiogeton pellucidus, an anemone found in Dorset in the 1970s before it disappeared.

The discovery has the scientific name Aiptasiogeton pellucidus var comatus, and Mr Durrant has proposed calling the small creature the fairy anemone.

I’d like to call it the fairy anemone, as it’s so small, delicate and elusive

He said: “It was found by accident at Hele Bay, really. I took a photo and posted it on Facebook and experts hadn’t a clue. So I decided to take a specimen for my aquarium at home to feed the anemone to see how it would develop – and get some more photos to try to identify it.

“I took a backlit photo which showed very clearly the transparency of the anemone as well as the tiny tubercules on it. I’d like to call it the fairy anemone, as it’s so small, delicate and elusive.” More anemones have been found at Newlyn, Cornwall, which are of the Hele Bay variety, rather than the previously-familiar Portland Harbour variety.

Dan Smith, from Devon Wildlife Trust, said: “It’s amazing that new animal discoveries can still be made right on our shores.”