Worker to queen

 Amongst bees, you make a queen through diet. I often wonder what selection criteria the colony applies.

But one species of ant has succession fights. When the queen dies, the workers fight over who gets to take her place. The winners start laying eggs.

So, basically, worker ants in this species fight for the right to undergo puberty. Their brains change. And a single protein "switch" appears to be behind it.

We don't quite know how...and now we need to look into other species. For example, does royal jelly contain a substance which activates a similar protein switch to turn a worker bee into a reigning queen?