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Rare fireflies live on this Utah woman’s farm. A housing project threatens them.

The flashes of light floated in the air for a second and then extinguished. A few feet away, they would strike up again. Tiny, match-like bursts.

“There’s one,” a boy shouted. “Look over there! Right there!” a girl squealed.

In the dark, no one could really tell where they were pointing. But everyone knew they were seeing the same thing: fireflies.

It was the last tour of the summer season at Diane Garcia’s alfalfa farm in Utah County where — by some inimitable combination of tall grasses and marshy ground and dark skies — the unique bugs have taken up an unexpected residence.