The eggs of the female give rise to embryos within the body of the mother; her other organs undergo a retrogressive change and serve as food for the young, until the body-wall only of the mother remains as a brown capsule.
When the bud is nearly complete, the body-wall of the parent immediately below it becomes perforated, placing the coelenteric cavity of the parent in secondary communication with that of the bud (H), doubtless for the better nutrition of the latter.
The body wall of the Chaetopoda consists of a "dermo-muscular" tube which is separated from the gut by the coelom and its peritoneal walls, except in most leeches.
This is the typical arrangement, which is exhibited in the majority of the Polychaeta and Oligochaeta; in these the successive chambers of the coelom are separated by the intersegmental septa, sheets of muscle fibres extending from the body wall to the gut and thus forming partitions across the body.
In addition to the coelom, another system of fluid-holding spaces lies between the body wall and the gut in the Chaetopoda.
