Where locomotive appendages (the parapodia of the Polychaeta) exist, they are never jointed, as always in the Arthropoda; nor are they modified anteriorly to form jaws, as in that group.
The setae are organs of locomotion, though their large size and occasionally jagged edges in some of the Polychaeta suggest an aggressive function.
They are disposed in two groups on either side, corresponding in the Polychaeta to the parapodia; the two bundles are commonly reduced among the earthworms to two pairs of setae or even to a single seta.
On the other hand, in certain Polychaeta the bundles of setae are so extensive that they nearly form a complete circle surrounding the body; and in the Oligochaet genus Perichaeta (=Pheretima), and some allies, there is actually a complete circle of setae in each segment broken only by minute gaps, one dorsal, the other ventral.
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.