Each species of slime mold has its own specific chemical messenger, collectively referred to as acrasins.[1] These chemicals signal that lots of individual cells should move towards each other to form a single large cell or plasmodium. One of the earliest acrasins to be identified was cAMP, 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.
References
Acrasin Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA