Schoolchildren surprised scientists when they stumbled across a rare species of ladybird.

And their find was all down to the use of a device pioneered by enterprising inventors at Oxford Brookes University.

A group of 12- and 13-year-old pupils from The Cherwell School, in Marston Ferry Road, Oxford, found a vedalia ladybird on a day out at London's Natural History Museum.

The children were taking part in a project run by the university and were searching for insects in the museum's garden in Kensington when they found the ladybird, which is common in Australia and America, but had not been seen in the UK since 2002.

Lynn Hughes, of Oxford Brookes, who has been leading workshops at schools around the county, said: "It was exciting, with the kids finding a rare ladybird right under the scientists' noses."

The chidren were issued with handheld computers, running software called WildKey, which was developed at Oxford Brookes.

Ms Hughes said: "It's the first piece of software to name wildlife. You go through a series of questions like 'Is it a ladybird or a woodlice?', 'Does it have spots?' and keep going until you get the right answer."

Beetles curator at the museum Max Barclay said: "It's probably the second or third time it's been found here. The first time was in 2003 when a man in a pub in Chelsea found it - it flew into his beer and he brought it in to us."

"Children are actually quite good at finding insects, he added. "They are closer to the ground and have sharper eyes. They found something 300 scientists at the museum missed."