We use GALEX ultraviolet (UV) and optical integrated photometry of the
hosts of seventeen luminous supernovae (LSNe, having peak M_V < -21)
and compare them to a sample of 26,000 galaxies from a cross-match
between the SDSS DR4 spectral catalog and GALEX interim release 1.1. We
place the LSNe hosts on the galaxy NUV-r versus M_r color magnitude
diagram (CMD) with the larger sample to illustrate how extreme they are.
The LSN hosts appear to favor low-density regions of the galaxy CMD
falling on the blue edge of the blue cloud toward the low luminosity
end. From the UV-optical photometry, we estimate the star formation
history of the LSN hosts. The hosts have moderately low star formation
rates (SFRs) and low stellar masses (M_*) resulting in high specific
star formation rates (sSFR). Compared with the larger sample, the LSN
hosts occupy low-density regions of a diagram plotting sSFR versus M_*
in the area having higher sSFR and lower M_*. This preference for low
M_*, high sSFR hosts implies the LSNe are produced by an effect having
to do with their local environment. The correlation of mass with
metallicity suggests that perhaps wind-driven mass loss is the factor
that prevents LSNe from arising in higher-mass, higher-metallicity
hosts. The massive progenitors of the LSNe (>100 M_sun), by appearing
in low-SFR hosts, are potential tests for theories of the initial mass
function that limit the maximum mass of a star based on the SFR.
