Villagers have been dipping into their pockets to extend a wood that is home to a rare butterfly.

So far £26,000 has come from residents in Piddington, near Bicester, and from other sources to buy seven acres of land to enlarge, and help protect, Piddington Wood.

The wood beside the main Bicester to Thame road is one of seven woodlands nationally that the Woodland Trust wants to improve. If two areas of land can be purchased, the extended wood would cover 45 acres, including an area of blackthorn scrub, the habitat of the rare black hairstreak butterfly.

Laura Judson, Oxfordshire regional fundraiser for the Woodland Trust, said villagers in Piddington had responded to an appeal earlier this year, and money had also come from other sources.

"To buy both pieces of land we need £80,000. But we have sufficient money to buy about seven acres of scrubland where the butterflies live," she said. The scrubland site would be monitored to see how the butterfly fared.

Miss Judson said it was hoped to buy another 22-acres of land later to extend the wood further.

Piddington Parish Council chairman Tony Tallents said: "We support the idea of extending the wood, although we have not been asked to make a grant."