Rare butterflies have been spotted after a group of volunteers planted hundreds of elm trees.

According to The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, butterflies are in sharp decline, with the white-letter hairstreak species falling by 80% since the survey began in 1973.

The Friends of the Quantocks has now planted more than 400 elm trees, the white-letter hairstreak’s natural habitat, in a bid to boost their numbers.

“A number of butterflies have been lost on the Quantocks over the past 75 years,” said Robin Stamp, chairman of the group. “We thought, let’s do our utmost to find it if it still does exist and then do something about its habitat, which are elm trees.”

White-letter hairstreak butterflies are hard to spot, as they fly around the tops of tall elm trees.

Stamp said part of the reason for the species’ decline is they prefer very tall elm trees, which flower. However, Dutch elm disease means many trees die before they reach their full height.

“Most people have forgotten what elm trees look like,” Stamp said.

However, he added the group found about 100 elm trees in the Quantocks and has planted 430 more disease resistant elms across 38 plots of land.

The project received money from the farming in a protected landscape fund to help pay for the planting.

So far, 11 hairstreak butterflies and three hairstreak caterpillars have been spotted in the area.

“We hope to find more butterflies this year. We’re also looking for other species of butterflies that have not been seen in years,” Stamp said.

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