I hope anyone with solid entomological credentials can tell me if this is harmful to the insect.

I was trying out my super powered diy Cree headlamp in the backyard last night. I live in Grand Haven, MI. Grass is approx three inches high. It's about 1:00 A:M.

As I'm scanning the grass I notice a vivid white sparkle in the grass about 10 feet ahead of me. I think it might be a sparkling pebble. But as I get closer it gets more intense. Maybe it's a lost diamond earring?

I get within feet and then inches and come upon a frozen in place wolf spider. Wow. Very interesting.

I take my time and accustom my eyes to the light for a few minutes. Eventually I'm seeing a dozen similar sparkles in the grass and every one of them ends up being a wolf spider. It's easy to distinguish the size of the insect by the reflection. The very biggest spiders are like little stars in the grass.

My LED seems to freeze them like a deer-in-the-headlights. I can approach them to within inches and prod them with a grass stem. The do not retreat or move. I'm worried that I may actually be burning their eyes in this new found endeavor.

There were only two more types of spider that I was able to distinguish in the next hour of hunting about.

Evidently the better an insect or animal's night vision, the more reflective their eyes are under artificial light. I recall wandering the woods years ago with a strong incandescent lamp and the eyes of night animals, raccoon, skunk, etc, peered from the deep woods in reflection. Modern LED portable lighting is many times more powerful than was available to the average adventurer a decade ago.