Each species of slime mold has its own specific chemical messenger, which are collectively referred to as acrasins.
[1] One of the earliest acrasins to be identified was cyclic AMP, found in the species Dictyostelium discoideum by Brian Shaffer,[2] which exhibits a complex swirling-pulsating spiral pattern when forming a pseudoplasmodium.
[3] The term acrasin was descriptively named after Acrasia from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene,[4] who seduced men against their will and then transformed them into beasts.
Acrasia is itself a play on the Greek akrasia that describes loss of free will.
Brian Shaffer was the first to purify acrasin, now known to be cyclic AMP, in 1954, using methanol.