Continuing the systematic determination of the electron temperature of HII regions using the Balmer and/or Paschen discontinuities by Guseva et al. (2006ApJ...644..890G) we focus here on 3.6m ESO telescope observations of a large new sample of 69 HII regions in 45 blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies. This data set spans a wide range in metallicity (Z_{sun}_/60<Z11000K) HII regions the temperature of the O^2+^ zone, determined from doubly ionised oxygen forbidden lines, does not differ statistically from the temperature of the H^+^ zone. Thus, we confirm and strengthen the finding by Guseva et al. (2006ApJ...644..890G). We emphasize that due to a number of modelling assumptions and the observational uncertainties for individual objects, only a large, homogeneous sample, as the one used here, can enable a conclusive study of the relation between Te(H^+^) and Te(OIII).

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/464/885/HII (Observed parameters, electron temperatures, ionic and total element abundances in the 53 HII regions)