Top 40 Commonalities Between Insects and Humans plus a look into Future AI Insects

Creatix / September 19, 2025

Trivia: Do all insects like sugar? [Find answer at the end.]

From the outside, insects seem utterly alien—many legs, compound eyes, armor-like exoskeletons, tiny bodies, etc. But look closer and the overlaps with humans are striking: we run on the same genetic code, build cells with the same molecular machinery, wire bodies with comparable signaling pathways and circadian clocks, and even age via related biochemical routes. And behaviorally, the echoes continue: cooperation, division of labor, communication, teaching, navigation, hygiene, agriculture, architecture, conflict management, and more. In general, it seems to be part of the same ideas under different hardware. 

In this post, we list Top 20 Biological commonalities and the Top 20 Behavioral commonalities between humans and insects. This should show you just how much we share with the tiny neighbors under our feet. Maybe we should be more compassionate with them to the extent feasible and within common sense. Not all insects are created equal and not all of them represent a hazard to human health.  

Top 20 Biological Commonalities Between Insects and Humans:

1. DNA + genetic code
   Same central dogma: DNA → RNA → protein with nearly universal codons.

2. Eukaryotic cells
   Nucleus, mitochondria, ER, Golgi, lipid-bilayer membranes.

3. Multicellularity & specialization
   Cell differentiation leads to tissues/organs/systems working in homeostatic coordination.

4. Three germ layers
   Embryos form ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm → the three major tissue families.

5. Body-plan toolkits
   Conserved Hox, Wnt, Notch, Hedgehog pattern head-to-tail and segments.

6. Nervous systems & neurotransmitters
   Neural synapses via action potentials and electrochemical messages mediated by the same organic molecules like glutamate, GABA, dopamine, and serotonin.

7. Immune response:
   Built-in first-responder “alarm” sensors (called Toll/TLR) quickly flip a master switch (NF-κB) that turns on genes to launch a fast, broad defense against germs.

8. Energy metabolism
   Glycolysis, Krebs cycle, oxidative phosphorylation; ATP synthase in mitochondria.

9. Circadian clocks
   Clock genes (e.g., period, timeless, Clock/cycle/BMAL1 orthologs) drive 24-hour daily rhythms.

10. Core senses
    Vision (light receptors), smell/taste (chemoreceptors), touch/mechanosensation, proprioception (body awareness).

11. Sexual reproduction
    Meiosis to make gametes (males → sperm; females → eggs); sexual act; fertilization, recombination, zygote → embryo.

12. Homeostasis
    Regulate pH, ions, water balance; circulate fluids (blood in humans; hemolymph fluid in insects).

13. Cell cycle control & apoptosis
    Checkpoints and conserved programmed-cell-death pathways remove damaged cells. Potential for developing cancer although insect lifespan is too short in most cases. 

14. Cellular signal transduction:
    Cells have “doorbells” on their surface (GPCRs and RTKs). When a signal presses the doorbell, the cell sends tiny internal messages (like cAMP, calcium, IP₃) that generates specific internal processes. 

15. Cytoskeleton & motors: 
    Cells have an inner "scaffolding" (actin and microtubules) and tiny motors (myosin, kinesin, dynein) that move cargo, change shape, divide, and power muscle contraction.

16. Gene regulation & epigenetics:
    Cells use DNA “switches and dimmers” that control genes—proteins work like switches turning genes on and off; other chemicals work like tags or sticky notes keeping gene activity up or down.

17. Oxygen-based respiration (plain English): Cells “burn” fuel with oxygen to make energy, which creates some harmful byproducts (“sparks”) called reactive oxygen species. Both humans and insects use cleanup enzymes—superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase—to neutralize those sparks.

18. Microbiomes
    Gut/symbiotic microbes influence digestion, immunity, and development.

19. Learning & memory
    Habituation and associative learning via synaptic plasticity.

20. Aging pathways:
    Long life vs. fast growth is set by ancient “dials” in our cells. When food is plentiful, insulin/IGF and TOR push growth; when scarce, sirtuins and other stress-response systems shift the body into repair mode. These dials trade off reproduction and growth against maintenance and lifespan.

Top 20 Behavioral Commonalities Between Insects and Humans:

1. Social cooperation
   Work together to build, forage, defend, and rear young (eusocial insects; human communities).

2. Division of labor
   Roles split by age, skill, or context (age-polyethism in ants/bees; human professions/households).

3. Communication signals
   Use chemical, tactile, visual, and acoustic cues to share info (pheromones, stridulation; speech/gestures).

4. Spatial “symbolic” messaging
   Encode location/quality of resources (bee waggle dance) akin to humans conveying maps/directions.

5. Collective decision-making
   Groups reach consensus via quorum thresholds, recruitment, or voting-like processes (nest-site choice; human committees).

6. Teaching & social learning
   Experienced individuals guide novices (ant tandem running; humans mentoring/apprenticeship).

7. Learning & memory
   Associative learning, habituation, and long-term memory (e.g., odor–reward conditioning; human classrooms).

8. Navigation & wayfinding
   Path integration, landmark use, and sun/sky compasses (ants/bees); humans use landmarks/maps/GPS.

9. Foraging strategies (explore vs. exploit)
   Balance scouting new options with exploiting known ones to maximize returns.

10. Resource storage & hoarding
    Stockpile food/energy for lean times (honey stores, seed caches; pantries, savings).

11. Farming & animal husbandry
    Leafcutter ants cultivate fungus; some ants “tend” aphids—human agriculture/livestock are parallel strategies.

12. Architecture & home maintenance
    Construct shelters with ventilation/thermoregulation (termite mounds, combs; buildings, HVAC).

13. Hygiene & disease management
    Self/allo-grooming, antimicrobial resins, “social immunity”; humans wash, disinfect, vaccinate.

14. Waste management & “funerals”
    Designated latrines/middens; remove or isolate corpses to limit disease—humans bury/cremate and manage waste.

15. Defense, policing & norm enforcement
    Guards at nest entrances; worker policing against "criminals" and cheaters—humans have laws and enforcement.

16. Conflict and crime-like behavior (in some species)
    Territorial battles, raids, organized aggression, theft/robbery, kidnapping/slavery-like social parasitism, prostitution-like behavior, rape-like sexual coercion, cheating or breaking rules

17. Courtship & mate choice
    Displays, signals, and mate selection based on condition/quality (songs, scents, dances).

18. Parental/brood care
    Provisioning, guarding, temperature control of young; parenting and childcare in humans.

19. Sleep-like rest & circadian schedules
    Daily activity–rest cycles; sleep/homeostatic regulation influences performance in both.

20. Tool use & problem-solving (limited but real)
    Some insects use materials to transport liquids or access food (e.g., sand, leaves; lab string-pulling), echoing human tool innovation.

If creatures as outwardly alien as insects and humans can share so much—genetic code, cellular machinery, circadian clocks, learning, cooperation—then imagine how many more things we have in common with our fellow human beings of other "races" and cultures. Beneath accents, passports, and opinions, we run the same neural chemistry for joy and fear, carry the same hopes for our children, and bruise under the same laws of biology.

Let that recognition nudge us toward compassion. When we disagree, start from shared ground: we all want safety, dignity, meaning, and a chance to contribute. Curiosity beats contempt; listening beats labeling. Extending patience across our species is simply applying, at human scale, the kinship we just noticed across kingdoms of life.

We are arrangements of the same atoms, animated by the same forces, unfolding inside the same universe. If we can see echoes of ourselves in a honeybee’s dance or an ant’s teamwork, we can certainly see ourselves in one another. Let’s act like it, choosing understanding over suspicion, care over cruelty, and solidarity over faction, so the common code we share becomes a common future we build together. Speaking of which, let's take a look at the future of robotic "insects"

Insect-size robotics: tiny bodies, huge potential

Insect-size robots (sub-gram machines measured in millimeters) promise access to spaces bigger bots can’t reach: inside collapsed buildings, crop canopies, machinery, or even pipes. Nature is the blueprint; labs copy insect tricks in flight, crawling, sensing, and swarming while wrestling with brutal power and payload limits. (Wyss Institute)

At this scale every milligram matters. Actuators, sensors, power, and control must fit on a postage-stamp and wings or legs must still deliver lift/traction. That’s why most breakthroughs come as focused demos: a first untethered flight, a tougher walker, or a new micro-power source.

How they move

• Flying microrobots. Harvard’s RoboBee X-Wing achieved the first untethered insect-scale flights by adding a second wing pair and a lightweight solar/electronics stack. The University of Washington’s RoboFly used laser power beaming and onboard circuits to flap its wings. (Harvard SEAS)

• Legged crawlers. HAMR (Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot) walks at high speed, paddles on water, and even walks underwater, leveraging surface tension and clever foot pads. (Nature)

• Soft, resilient “insects.” EPFL’s DEAnsect runs on soft dielectric-elastomer “muscles,” surviving squishing and bending; other teams showed fast, untethered soft robotic insects with similar actuators. (EPFL)

Power: the #1 bottleneck

• Beamed energy. Solar cells (RoboBee) and laser power (RoboFly) sidestep batteries but require intense light/line-of-sight. Reports note RoboBee’s high light requirement; laser systems raise eye-safety and tracking issues. (Wyss Institute)

• Tiny batteries & supercaps. 3D-printed and 3D-architected microbatteries are improving energy and power density, but integration at milligram scale remains tough. (Harvard SEAS)

• Chemical fuels. RoBeetle (∼88 mg) uses catalytic methanol to drive shape-memory “muscles,” crawling for long durations without electronics—showing how fuel beats batteries at tiny scales. (Science)

Brains & senses for tiny bots

Weight pushes designers toward minimalist sensors (optic-flow, touch, simple microphones) and ultra-low-power control (ASICs, microcontrollers, or neuromorphic ideas). Swarm control shifts intelligence from single bots to the collective, where groups can transport loads or explore together. (Nature)

How they’re built

A signature technique is pop-up (origami) MEMS: laser-cut laminated sheets that “pop up” into 3D linkages—fast, repeatable, and perfect for centimeter/millimeter robots. It underpins RoboBee and many HAMR versions. (Wyss Institute)

Bio-hybrids (cyborg insects)

Another branch fits ultrathin electronics + solar cells onto real insects (e.g., cockroaches) for guided motion. This has ethics considerations. (RIKEN)

Near-term applications

• Search & inspection: slide through rubble voids, aircraft wings, pipes, or machinery. HAMR-style walkers already show multi-terrain promise. (Nature)

• Environmental/agri-monitoring: distributed sensors across fields or forests; long-term pollination ideas remain research, not yet bee replacements. (Wyss Institute)

• Lab/medical devices: advances in micro-power and soft actuation could translate to tiny instruments and in-situ diagnostics over time. (Science)

What’s next (2025–2030)

Expect incremental but compounding progress: better energy density (printed microbatteries, hybrid fuel systems), more autonomous behaviors via clever sensing and on-device learning, and practical swarms that coordinate tasks robustly. Manufacturing (pop-up MEMS and micro-printing) will be as important as algorithms. (ScienceDirect)

Key examples at a glance

• RoboBee X-Wing: first untethered insect-scale flight via solar cells + extra wings. (Harvard SEAS)

• RoboFly: laser-powered, wireless flapping robot. (UW Homepage)

• HAMR/HAMR-JR: fast walkers; water surface → underwater transitions. (Nature)

• DEAnsect: soft, resilient insect robot using dielectric elastomer muscles. (EPFL)

• RoBeetle: 88-mg, methanol-fueled autonomous crawler. (Science)

Ultraconnected swarms: wireless AI for insect-size robots (the 2030s and beyond)

What “wireless AI” means at milligram scale.
Picture a three-layer nervous system: (1) ultra-lean “reflex” brains on each bot (microcontroller/neuromorphic cores running tiny, quantized models), (2) nearby edge beacons (drones, ground hubs, field gateways) and everywhere internet of things that fuse data and hand out micro-tasks, and (3) a cloud planner that updates policies and maps. Lightweight radios (BLE/802.15.4/UWB/HaLow), backscatter links, and even optical/acoustic beacons give the swarm a shared situational awareness while on-bot code handles milliseconds-fast reactions.

How tiny bots talk, learn, and power up.

• Talk: short, bursty packets; mesh relays; localization via UWB/ultrasound/visual fiducials.

• Learn: distilled/quantized models, on-device pattern matching, and periodic federated updates (the swarm learns collectively without shipping raw data).

• Power: trickle-charge from indoor/outdoor light, inductive/RF “pit stops,” or contact charging at base pads; tasks are scheduled around energy budgets.

New capabilities once AI + wireless snap together.

• Disaster micro-rescue: thousands of “AI ants” slip through rubble, map voids, sniff gas/CO₂, and relay survivor audio/heat signals via an ad-hoc mesh.

• Plant-by-plant agriculture: micro-sprayers treat a single leaf, release beneficial insects with pinpoint timing, and pollination assistants coordinate with real bees rather than replace them—cutting chemical use and run-off.

• Inside-the-infrastructure inspectors: swarms crawl air ducts, sewer pipes, turbines, and fuselages, logging corrosion, leaks, and micro-fractures before failure.

• Environmental sentinels: “AI gnats” sample air, spores, and particulates across forests and cities, spotting wildfire embers or pathogen hotspots early.

• Last-meter logistics: shelf-scanning “AI beetles” count inventory, check expiry dates, and guide people/robots to the exact bin—no barcodes required.

• Exploration where humans can’t go: micro-hoppers for lava tubes, glacier crevasses, or even low-gravity caves on the Moon/Mars.

• Medical frontiers (long-term): lessons from soft actuation, micromechanics, and power management translate to regulated capsule tools and in-situ diagnostics. (Strict clinical pathways apply.)

Why swarms beat single bots.
Stigmergy (leave simple traces), redundancy (many cheap units), and specialization (scouts, mappers, haulers) let tiny robots act like a single, adaptive organism. If a few fail, the mission continues; if the environment changes, roles reconfigure in seconds.

Design rules for “AI bugs” the public will accept.

• Safety by default: broadcast IDs, geofencing, hard speed/altitude/payload limits, and hardware kill-switches.

• Privacy by design: on-device redaction (no faces/voices stored), task-only metadata, strict time-to-live for logs.

• Traceability: tamper-proof provenance and remote attestation so only approved firmware can run.

• Visible signaling: distinctive markings/LEDs (not hyper-real mosquito mimicry) to avoid fear and misidentification.

• Governance: permits, registries, and clear no-go zones (schools, hospitals, private interiors) plus third-party audits.

A note on “super-intelligent AI mosquitoes.”
The same traits that make these systems powerful—stealth, scale, coordination—also make them abusable for surveillance or harm. The path forward is capability and constraint: open standards, international norms, and technical guardrails that make misuse hard and detection easy. Aim for helpers, not spies; assistants, not weapons.

Bottom line.

Wireless AI turns microrobots from dazzling demos into ecosystems billions of tiny helpers stitched together by narrowband links and shared intelligence. If we build them with purpose, transparency, and limits, “AI ants” and “AI gnats” could quietly rewrite how we grow food, keep people safe, maintain infrastructure, and study our planet changing the world in ways that feel unimaginable today, and responsibly so.

The Potential Evil Side: Biblical “plagues” reenacted in the age of AI insects 

Note: The scenarios below are risk illustrations, not instructions. Many would be illegal and unethical. We describe them to motivate safeguards and defenses.

Locusts → “Crop-blackout” swarms

• Old story: Locusts strip fields and darken the sky.

• Modern misuse: Large numbers of tiny flying bots could briefly black out remote sensing (block cameras/drones), confuse pollinators, or contaminate harvest surfaces, spiking costs and sowing panic even without causing physical damage.

• Primary harms: Food-supply anxiety, price shocks, loss of agronomic visibility.

• Defenses: Farm-level micro-radar & acoustic detection, redundant imaging (multispectral + ground truth), physical screening over critical inlets, and geofenced no-fly zones with verified remote ID.

Flies/Gnats → morale and sanitation attacks

• Old story: Swarms of biting flies/gnats degrade daily life.

• Modern misuse: “AI gnat” clouds that harass gatherings and transit hubs, jam outdoor cameras, or trigger false sanitation alerts by clustering on waste points.

• Primary harms: Operational disruption, public fear, reputational damage to cities or venues.

• Defenses: Event geofencing, counter-scent/acoustic beacons that repel or redirect swarms, rapid-response cleanup protocols, and mesh-screened infrastructure.

Lice/Gnats → infiltration & surveillance

• Old story: Lice/gnats invade personal space.

• Modern misuse: Micro-crawlers that slip into seams and vents to eavesdrop or map interiors.

• Primary harms: Privacy breaches, insider threat amplification.

• Defenses: Building “micro-perimeter” hardening (fine-mesh vents, electrostatic curtains on intakes), continuous RF/backscatter anomaly scans, firmware attestation for all authorized devices, and strict indoor no-bot zones.

Pestilence on livestock → stress & herd disruption

• Old story: Diseased herds.

• Modern misuse (non-biological): Persistent buzzing/flitting that stresses animals, disrupts feeding or milking schedules, or spooks herds during transport.

• Primary harms: Welfare impacts, productivity losses.

• Defenses: Barn-level acoustic deterrents, intake filtering, routine swarm-detection sweeps, and agricultural airspace corridors with enforceable exclusions.

Hail & Darkness (metaphors) → sensor/energy denial

• Old story: Hail destroys; darkness blinds.

• Modern misuse: Dense swarms that occlude skylights, solar panels, or cameras (“artificial darkness”) or clog air inlets and filters (“soft hail”).

• Primary harms: Energy/surveillance shortfalls, overheating, maintenance spikes.

• Defenses: Redundant power/imaging, self-cleaning coatings and filter cascades, automated shutters, and local “counter-swarms” that herd bots away.

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Guardrails so AI insects don’t become evil plagues

• Design-time constraints: Mandatory remote ID, geofencing, speed/altitude/payload caps, and hardware kill-switches on all micro-robot platforms.

• Privacy by default: On-device redaction; minimal, task-only metadata; short data retention.

• Traceable supply chains: Tamper-evident firmware, remote attestation, and registries for micro-actuators, radios, and pop-up MEMS assemblies.

• Detection & response: Municipal “swarmscopes” (RF + acoustic + optical micro-Doppler), standardized incident playbooks, and safe counter-measures that disable without collateral harm.

• Law & norms: Clear prohibitions on weaponization, international norms for micro-robot conduct, independent audits, and strong penalties for misuse.

Bottom line: The same capabilities that make “AI ants” transformative—scale, coordination, stealth—could be twisted into modern “plagues.” We should build the rails (standards, detection, and accountability) as we build the roads (wireless AI and micromechanics), so tiny robots remain what we want them to be: helpers, not harassers; guardians, not scourges. This will be a huge industry in the future. As we can see, the economy keeps growing and expanding because each new technology solves some problems while creating new ones. 

Answer to Trivia Question: Not all insects like sugar. Preferences and tolerance levels vary by species, diet, life stage, and genetics, so some insects (e.g., predators, tsetse flies, sugar-averse roaches) ignore or even avoid sugar altogether.

Now you know it.

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