I am working at Texas A&M University in collaboration with S. Bradleigh Vinson on the ecology of native ants of east Texas.  These ants may be important in limiting the success of the imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta.  At present, our work includes a study of the basic ecology of native ants and the temporal and spatial aspects of ant community structure.  The work should provide important information for imported fire ant management, while also having general applications to ecology and conservation biology.  I also continue my interests in other aspects of the behavioral ecology of social insects and in parental investment and the evolution of sex ratios.
 

EDUCATION

PH.D.  ZOOLOGY  1994   
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

M.S.   ZOOLOGY  1987
University of Nevada, Reno, NV

B.S.   ZOOLOGY  1983
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
 

PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
1998 - PRESENT
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University
College Station, TX

ENTOMOLOGIST
1996 - 1998
Arizona Department of Agriculture
Phoenix, AZ

TEMPORARY FACULTY AND CONSULTANT
1996
Columbia University at Biosphere 2
Oracle, AZ

TEMPORARY FACULTY                                                                                                                 
1996
Department of Biology, Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE    
1995
Department of Biology, Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ

FACULTY ASSOCIATE   
1994
Department of Biology, Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ
 

PUBLICATIONS

Helms, K.R. and G.B. Pollock. Estimating the cost of parental investment in female versus male offspring from their frequency within families. Journal of Evolutionary Biology (In Review).

Helms, K.R. Colony sex ratios and conflict between queens and workers in the ant Pheidole desertorum. Evolution (In Review).

Helms, K.R., J.H. Fewell, and S.W. Rissing. Sex ratio determination by queens and workers in the ant Pheidole desertorum.  Animal Behaviour (In Review).

Wetterer, J.K., S.E. Miller, D.E. Wheeler, C.A. Olson, D.A. Polhemus, M. Pitts, I.W. Ashton, G. Himler, M.M. Yospin, K.R. Helms, E.L. Harken, J. Gallaher, C.E. Dunning, M. Nelson, J. Litsinger, A. Southern, and T. Burgess. Ecological dominance by Paratrechina longicornis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), an invasive tramp ant, in Biosphere 2.  Florida Entomologist (In Press).

Cahan, S., K.R. Helms, and S.W. Rissing. 1998. An abrupt transition in colony founding behaviour in the ant Messor pergandei.  Animal Behaviour 55:1583-1594.

Helms, K.R. 1995.  Natural history of the ant Pheidole desertorum Wheeler in a desert grassland habitat. Psyche 102:35-47.

Helms, K.R. 1994. Sexual size dimorphism and sex ratios in bees and wasps. American Naturalist 143:418-434.

Helms, K.R. and S.W. Rissing. 1990. Single sex alate production by colonies of Pheidole desertorum and Pheidole xerophila tucsonica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche 97:213-216.

Last modified January 29, 1999
Maintained by Ken Helms