myxobacterium

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of numerous rod-shaped, aerobic, gram-negative bacteria of the order Myxococcales that move by gliding and have a complex life cycle in which vegetative cells aggregate into fruiting bodies and differentiate into desiccation-resistant spores.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A type of bacteria that form colonies in self-produced slime; they inhabit moist soils or decaying plant matter or animal waste.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun biology Any of many gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria, of the phylum Myxobacteria, that form colonies of slime

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun bacteria that form colonies in self-produced slime; inhabit moist soils or decaying plant matter or animal waste