diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 1ccc112cf..47addd89d 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ Martijn Kruithof
 Martin Landers
 Martin Poeschl
 Martin van den Bemt
+Mathieu Champlon
 Mathieu Peltier
 Matt Albrecht
 Matt Benson
diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 434c6c0de..2e770d470 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -270,6 +270,9 @@ Fixed bugs:
 * <rmic> has a new adapter, xnew, to use the -XNew back end on java1.5+.
   By forking rmic, this works on java1.6+. Bugzilla report 38732.
 
+* Copy of UnknownElement in macroinstance was not recursive.
+  Bugzilla report 40238.
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/MacroInstance.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/MacroInstance.java
index d24ab6c5c..6db83c24a 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/MacroInstance.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/MacroInstance.java
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ public class MacroInstance extends Task implements DynamicAttribute, TaskContain
                 }
                 for (Iterator i = unknownElements.iterator();
                      i.hasNext();) {
-                    UnknownElement child = (UnknownElement) i.next();
+                    UnknownElement child = copy((UnknownElement) i.next());
                     rc.addChild(child.getWrapper());
                     ret.addChild(child);
                 }
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ public class MacroInstance extends Task implements DynamicAttribute, TaskContain
                 }
                 for (Iterator i = list.iterator();
                      i.hasNext();) {
-                    UnknownElement child = (UnknownElement) i.next();
+                    UnknownElement child = copy((UnknownElement) i.next());
                     rc.addChild(child.getWrapper());
                     ret.addChild(child);
                 }