Left panel. Color-mass diagram in the redshift range 0.8 < z < 1.2 for the comparison sample of normal galaxies (gray contours), and the Type-2 QSOs hosts. The rest-frame colors of the Type-2 QSOs hosts have been measured after removing the contribution from the AGN. Star-forming galaxies are indicated with the star symbol, while the circles correspond to passive galaxies. The dashed curve is the dividing line between red passive and blue star-forming galaxies at z = 1 according to Peng et al. (2010). The vertical bars show the variation in rest-frame colors if an unobscured AGN component is included in the SED fitting procedure (see Sect. 5). Central panel. U − B rest-frame color distribution for the Type-2 QSOs host galaxies (filled histogram) and the comparison sample of normal galaxies (hatched histogram) in the redshift range 0.8 < z < 1.2. Right panel. As in the central panel but only for sources with M _⋆  > 3  ×  10¹⁰M_⊙.