ABSTRACT
In 1988, historian Tom Griffiths planted a time bomb in Australia’s natural history literature. Apparently unintended, this act of temporal terrorism raises intriguing questions about both what is ‘natural’ and what is ‘historical’ in ecology. Under the rubric of rethinking invasion ecologies, this chapter explores some of the epistemological and ontological questions raised by Griffiths’ disturbing publication, particularly in relation to arthropods – the phylum of invertebrates that includes insects, crustaceans and arachnids.
