FERRULE AND OPTICAL CONNECTOR

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a ferrule and optical connector which can easily be assembled while given high reliability by suppressing the extreme bending or buckling of an internal fiber at the time of assembly. SOLUTION: The ferrule has a ferrule substrate 21 which has a front half part 21b and a rear half part 21c so that a fixation hole 21d for the internal fiber 22 is formed in the front half part 21b and the rear half part 21c has its upper half made open, a fiber groove 21e for positioning an optical fiber FOP on the top surface of the rear half part coaxially with the axis of the fixation hole 21d, and has the internal fiber 22 fixed from the tip of the fixation hole 21d to part of the fiber groove 21e, a lid member which is made to cover the rear half part of the ferrule substrate 21, and a hold member which elastically holds the ferrule substrate and lid member. In this case, a hollow part 21g is formed from the rear end part 21j of the fixation hole 21d to the end part 21k of the fiber groove 21e and the length L of the hollow part 21g is 2.5 to 8 (mm).