Ly alpha emitters with red colors at z similar or equal to 2.4

We have carried out a search for Ly alpha emission from galaxies at z simil ar or equal to 2.4 over a field of 1200 arcmin(2) using the CFH12K camera a t the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and a custom medium-band filter. The s earch has uncovered 58 candidates, corresponding to a completeness-correcte d source density of similar to0.07 arcmin(-2). Our sources have red colors ((B - I) over bar similar or equal to 1.8) that imply either that a large f raction of the light is highly reddened and that we are detecting Ly emissi on through special lines of sight or that these objects contain an underlyi ng older stellar population. While for each individual object we cannot dis criminate between these alternatives, we conclude that most of the objects actually contain an older component because the star formation rates inferr ed from the picture based on reddening, applied to all candidates, would im ply an exceedingly high star formation rate, i.e., more than 2 orders of ma gnitude above the peak cosmic star formation rate.