Rare butterfly eggs found in wood

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.

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Community Service Volunteers (CSV)
Butterfly Conservation
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