The V R I colours of HII galaxies

We present a high spatial resolution CCD surface photometry study in the optical V, R and I broadband filters of a sample of 15 HII galaxies. The colours of the starburst continuum and of the underlying galaxy are measured. The distribution of colours of the underlying galaxy in HII galaxies is similar to the colours of other late type low surface brightness galaxies which suggests a close kinship of these with the quiescent phases of HII galaxies. However, comparison with recent evolutionary population synthesis models shows that the observational errors and the uncertainties in the models are still too large to put strict constraints on their past star formation history.