Malaney Dodson had never seen a firefly in the wild before.
That is until the born-and-raised Coloradan headed to a Fort Collins wetland in 2020 as part of her work on a special project underway at Westminster’s Butterfly Pavilion.
“As soon as the sun goes down at dusk, and the light is just fading, they start flashing, and it is so spectacular,” Dodson, an animal wellbeing coordinator and the head of firefly husbandry research, said. “And as lights just get darker and darker, you just see more and more lights flashing and flashing, and it's like little fireworks. They're like magical fairies.”
Now, she's known around the Butterfly Pavilion as a firefly grandma.
🌾 WATCH: Dodson discusses the ongoing Firefly Life Cycle Project and lessons this year's unusual winter could offer with Denver7's Kaylee Harter
Dodson's forearm is emblazoned with a tattoo of a firefly named Georgia, who emerged as an adult in the lab in 2025. She was reared from an egg to larva to adulthood over the course of years, and then laid an egg of her own. The egg then hatched, marking the completion of a firefly life cycle under human care — something researchers believe is a first for the species native to Colorado.
This year is presenting a new first.
Koda, a male firefly who has grown up in the lab, emerged as an adult in mid-May, the earliest of any firefly in the project so far.
“We're thinking that might be kind of an indicator of what our wild counterparts are going to be doing, hopefully emerging early, so that we can potentially bring him mates,” Dodson said.
The little beetles, whose lights dot the childhood memories of many who grew up elsewhere, are few and far between in Colorado.
Dodson and the crew at Butterfly Pavilion are working to change that. The Firefly Life Cycle Project began in 2017 with the goal of better understanding the luminous insects that sparsely inhabit Colorado's wetlands — and eventually bolstering their populations.
“If we can hatch individuals in the lab and rear them through their most vulnerable stages of life, we can release them into the wild, so that we can boost populations,” Dodson said.
But Colorado’s unusual winter is creating question marks for what will happen with those wild counterparts in Fort Collins.
“We don't know necessarily what these changing winter conditions are going to do to the fireflies in our state and their life cycle,” she said. “We're really hoping to see the same numbers as previous years, but with the lack of moisture that we've had, we really could see declines in populations.”
'A good indicator species'
One of the biggest takeaways from the project so far, Dodson says, is that Colorado fireflies need what’s called an overwintering period as larvae.
“We need those cold Colorado winter temperatures to help trigger their life cycle,” she said.
She mimics those conditions by keeping hundreds of larvae in a climate-controlled refrigerator in a small lab at Butterfly Pavilion that houses everything from retired tarantulas to pulsating jelly fish.
Fireflies kept at a constant temperature, she said, haven’t had the same success in becoming adults. Moisture is also a key factor, not just for the fireflies, but also for the slugs and snails they feast on throughout their time as larvae.
The hope, Dodson says, is that if the insect’s life cycle simply shifts to match environmental conditions, it won’t be “super catastrophic.” But that all depends on whether their food sources follow a similar pattern and if male and female fireflies’ life cycles shift in equal measure.
“This year is going to be super big on data and figuring out what these warm weather conditions are causing to our wetland keystone species,” Dodson said.
The impacts could extend beyond just this summer.
The bioluminescent critters live for years as larvae before emerging as adults and shining bright for just a few weeks, when their glowing tail ends light the way for potential mates.
That means conditions this year could impact not just those fireflies brightening the night this summer, but also in years to come.
“It's really hard to get a grasp on how different years of variance is going to affect their life cycle,” Dodson said. “But in the past few years we've seen pretty abundant populations, we think primarily due to the couple of wet springs.”
Understudied and highly sensitive to their environments, according to Dodson, fireflies have a lot to teach us about the overall health of wetland ecosystems.
“Fireflies are a good indicator species of environmental conditions, so like, if we see that fireflies are doing good, we know that other invertebrates in the wild are doing good,” she said.
Broadly, invertebrates make up more than 97% of all animals on Earth.
“They make up the majority of food chains,” she said. “So, if we see population declines in invertebrates, we see population declines in every species of animal."
Lighting the way
As the project continues, new milestones could be on the horizon.
The species here — known as femme fatales for their proclivity for luring unsuspecting males into the grass with their blinking lights before gobbling them up — may just be unique to Colorado.
The Butterfly Pavilion is currently working with CSU to figure that out.
“All of our adults, once they pass away, we send them to our lab to do genetic research and to figure out if this is a distinct species not found elsewhere in the world,” Dodson said. “We could be naming a new species.”
This year could also mark the first time they release the invertebrates back into their native habitats after years of studies in the lab.
“We're hoping to do some reintroduction of the larvae back into the habitat that we collect from, just so that … we're not just taking from the wild, we're also replenishing,” Dodson said.
For Dodson, the work all lights the way to something bigger: creating a deeper understanding — and appreciation — for our tiniest neighbors.
“Say hi to the spiders, say hi to the firefly, wave hello to the slugs and the snails," she said. "Get involved in your environment, and know that all these animals serve a greater purpose."
Have you seen fireflies in Colorado? Become a citizen scientist and contribute to Butterfly Pavilion's work by submitting sightings here.
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