History Main / MechanicalInsects

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rollbots}}'': The Spiderbots are spider-themed and very large rollbots that desire to wage war with the inhabitants of Flip City. The series' BigBad is a spiderbot named Vertex.

* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'': The villain Mechanicles builds ClockPunk robot insects to help in commiting his crimes.

Further, arthropods' exoskeletons and segmented limbs and bodies translate better to a robotic design than vertebrates' flexible skin and smoother outlines tend to. Even a robot that is not explicitly designed to resemble an arthropod can still bring one to mind through its plated outer armor, many-jointed limbs, and featureless eyes. At the very least, it's going to resemble some kind of insect more than it's likely to resemble a lizard, bird or mammal.

* The eponymous menace in the ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode "Dark Heart" is an invasive nanite swarm superweapon whose drones take the form of robotic insects as they work to consume all available resources of a planet.

-->--Monsterpedia entry for the '''Arachnoid''', ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando''

* ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'': In "The Second Renaissance," the Machines are first shown as humanoid robots designed for simple labor; as they attain sentience and begin forming a more complex society, their forms evolve into the more efficient, insectoid Machines seen in the Matrix Trilogy.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': Many Digimon in the franchise are robotic-based with a few individuals standing out in the anime adaptations:

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': A few of the Spider-Slayer robots were based on spiders. Namely, the Mark II, Mark III and Mark VI models.

* ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions''. As Neo is walking through the machine city, a number of insect-like robots crawl out of the walls and follow him.

* The ''[[Film/TransformersFilmSeries Transformers]]'' films have their own version of the Insecticons, which are Earth insect-sized drones used for espionage, search, and repair work.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' features the Replicators, who are primarily found as a swarm of insect- or spider-shaped things composed of thousands of metal 'blocks'. Each block in turn contains millions of AppliedPhlebotinum circuits, allowing the Replicators to not only reassemble themselves or combine with each other in a myriad frightening ways, but interface with and take control of anyone else's technology with truly terrifying speed. When moving in large numbers (and they're ''always'' in large numbers, or will be very quickly) they make a very distinctive metallic chittering sounds. In any episode where that sound is heard, expect things to rapidly get worse.

* Many toys of robot bugs have been made. Among the most popular examples being the [[https://www.hexbug.com/ Hexbugs]], which are designed after ticks and minuscule bugs and are placed inside mazes for them to complete.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'': Several of the MechaMooks in the series are based off insects and arthropods, such as the Yambow dragonflies in ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan3 3]]'', the giant centipedes in ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'', and even Hornet Man's drones from ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'', the last of which can be [[PowerCopying utilized by the player]] as the Hornet Chaser.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'': A number of the series' Mavericks are robotic {{Funny Animal}}s, several of which are based on arthropods. Many of the mechaniloid mooks count as well, such as the bees and Bospider from ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX1 X]]'', the dragonfly and caterpillar enemies in Neon Tiger's stage from ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX3 X3]]'', or the hornets and spiders in Web Spider's stage from ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX4 X4]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' introduced the Dark Heart, an invasive nanite swarm super weapon whose drones took the form of robotic insects as they worked to consume all available resources of a planet.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': A few of the Spider-Slayer robots were based on spiders. Namely, the Mark II, Mark III and Mark VI models.

Can be considered a subtrope of StarfishRobots, MechanicalLifeform, and MechanicalAnimals. Super-trope to LiteralSurveillanceBug, which specifically covers ones employed for espionage. Also compare to InsectoidAliens, MechanicalHorse, MechanicalMonster and RobotDog. Larger specimens may overlap with SpiderTank.