 One of the earliest acrasins to be identified was cAMP, found in the species "Dictyostelium discoideum" by Brian Shaffer, which exhibits a complex swirling-pulsating spiral pattern when forming a pseudoplasmodium.The term acrasin was descriptively named after Acrasia from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, 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.