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Abstract

Cassava caterpillars (Samia cynthia ricini) are a type of silk-producing caterpillar that consumes castor bean leaves, cassava leaves, and papaya leaves. A study was conducted to determine the growth characteristics of casava caterpillars (Samia cynthia ricini) fed with elephant cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) leaves. A total of 200 head Samia caterpillars are maintained by feeding them in the form of elephant cassava leaves. The parameters observed include body weight gain, body length, feed consumption and feed convertion ratio and feed digestibility coefficient. The results showed that the cultivation of Samia caterpillar by feeding elephant cassava leaves requires 21 days of cultivation time to form a cocoon. Samia caterpillars have a body length of 51.67 mm and a final body weight of 3.211 gram/head with an average body weight gain of 0.512 grams/head/day. Feed consumption of 0.168 grams/head/day with a FCR value of 1.344. Samia Caterpillar has 77.23% dry matter digestibility, 96.48% organic matter, 96.82% crude protein, 95.18% ether extract and 2.48% crude fiber. It can be concluded that the Samia caterpillars fed elephant cassava leaves have good growth and digestibility of nutrients, so it is very suitable to be used as an alternative feed for Samia cynthia ricini caterpillars.