Living organisms have acquired diverse physical forms, capabilities, and intelligence through a protracted process of trial and error known as evolution. Various research teams have endeavored to artificially replicate the essence of these organisms by conducting multifaceted investigations into their intellectual elements and physical structures from the perspectives of biology, information science, and engineering. This paper introduces recent progresses in bio-inspired robotics and soft robotics that have emerged from such interdisciplinary research. In particular, we focus on case studies, including behavioral experiments using virtual reality (VR) for insects, the extraction of adaptive ability of an insect based on the results of these experiments, and the design of soft robotic bodies utilizing biological materials.

Hymenoptera is an insect order including species that exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, making it a useful lineage to explore the brain bases associated with behavioral evolution through comparative analysis. Their behaviors and brain histology have long been studied, and differences in brain basis have also been explored by comparing the brain morphology among species. Recently, with the rise of single cell analysis and the establishment of genetic modification methods in some hymenopteran species, it has become possible to search for interspecific differences at the cell-type level and to analyze the functions of genes and neurons in the behavioral regulation. This paper reviews the phylogeny and behavior of hymenopteran insects and describes the brain bases related to behavioral evolution as revealed by comparative analysis of brain morphology and constituent cell-types of hymenopteran insect species. In addition, I introduce the current situation of genetic modification methods in hymenopteran insects, which is important for studying the function of the brain bases in the behavioral regulation, as well as the technical aspects to use each species.