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A study was conducted to determine the physical properties of silkworm pupae of different breed (PM X CSR4 and PM X CSR4) required during designing of post harvest processing, transportation and storage equipment. The physical properties were measured at different breed, initial moisture content and weight of sample under open sun yard drying and solar tunnel dryer. The different treatment combinations of length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, thousand pupae mass, suface area, volume and bulk density were linearly decreased with moisture content. The average length, width and thickness of fresh, sun dried and solar tunnel dried pupae were found to be 24.85, 21.05, 21.40mm, 10.04, 9.32, 9.98mm and 8.72, 7.14, 6.33 mm respectively. The average geometric mean diameter, sphericity, and thousand mass pupae values of fresh, sun dried and solar tunnel dried pupae were found to be 12.8, 11.25, 10.69 mm, 0.53, 0.51, 0.49, and 1171.5, 375.5, 378.12g respectively. The average surface area, volume and bulk density of fresh, sun dried and solar tunnel dried pupae were found to be 440.26, 340.97, 322.84 mm2, 878.10, 699.85 and 694.17 mm3, and 721.31, 234.01 and 234.78 kg/m3 respectively.
Keywords: Silkworm, Pupae, Post harvest processing, Solar tunnel dried