a) Redshift distributions of the MIPS galaxies identified with the BzK (red), BM/BX (green), and IRAC peaker (orange) selection techniques, compared to the distribution obtained for the whole sample of COSMOS sources with F_24   μm > 0.08 mJy (black solid histogram). b) The BzK color distribution of the MIPS galaxies identified at 1.4 < z < 2.5 with the COSMOS photometric redshifts. The BzK star-forming sources (S − BzK) are identified above the diagonal solid line. c) Distribution of the 1.5 < z < 2.8 MIPS galaxies in the V_J − i ⁺  versus u^∗ − V_J color diagram. The area defined by the solid line corresponds to our modified BM/BX criterion (see Sect. 3.1.2). d) IRAC colors of the MIPS sources located at 1.5 < z < 3. The box illustrates the IRAC peaker selection criterion proposed by Huang et al. (2004). The typical uncertainties for each population are shown in the corners of the figures.