In recent times, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are becoming more and more popular and are making significant advances in wireless communication thanks to low-cost and low-power sensors. However, since WSN nodes are battery-powered, they lose all of their autonomy after a certain time. This energy restriction impacts the network's lifetime. Clustering can increase the lifetime of a network while also lowering energy use. Clustering will bring several similar sensors to one location for data collection and delivery to the Base Station (BS). The Cluster Head (CH) uses more energy when collecting and transferring data. The life of the WSNs can be extended, and efficient identification of CH can minimize energy consumption. Creating a routing algorithm that considers the key challenges of lowering energy usage and maximizing network lifetime is still challenging. This paper presents an energy-efficient clustering routing protocol based on a hybrid Mayfly-Aquila optimization (MFA-AOA) algorithm for solving these critical issues in WSNs. The Mayfly algorithm is employed to choose an optimal CH from a collection of nodes. The Aquila optimization algorithm identifies and selects the optimum route between CH and BS. The simulation results showed that the proposed methodology achieved better energy consumption by 10.22%, 11.26%, and 14.28%, and normalized energy by 9.56%, 11.78%, and 13.76% than the existing state-of-art approaches.