Rare butterfly eggs found in wood

Brown Hairstreak Butterfly eggs were found by one of the original volunteers

Rare Brown Hairstreak Butterfly eggs have been discovered in Oxford.

The eggs were found by one of the original 30 volunteers who planted a "butterfly-attracting" hedge in Long Close Conservation Area in Wood Farm.

The volunteers were organised by the Community Service Volunteers charity, as part of an environmental clean-up campaign in September 2006.

After the eggs have hatched into caterpillars, the fully-formed butterfly should emerge in late July.

The Brown Hairstreak Butterfly has been in decline due to hedgerow removal and the widespread use of mechanical hedge flails.

A recent report by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, operated by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, showed butterfly numbers at their lowest for a quarter of a century due to last year's unusually wet weather.