We present the dust properties of a small sample of Virgo cluster dwarf galaxies drawn from the science demonstration phase data set of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey .
These galaxies have low metallicities ( 7.8 < 12 + log ( O/H ) < 8.3 ) and star-formation rates \mathrel { \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \hbox { \lower 4.0 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } } \hbox { $ < $ } } } 10 ^ { -1 } M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } .
We measure the spectral energy distribution ( SED ) from 100 to 500 \mu m and derive dust temperatures and dust masses .
The SEDs are fitted by a cool component of temperature T \mathrel { \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \hbox { \lower 4.0 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } } \hbox { $ < $ } } } 20 K , implying dust masses around 10 ^ { 5 } M _ { \odot } and dust-to-gas ratios \mathcal { D } within the range 10 ^ { -3 } -10 ^ { -2 } .
The completion of the full survey will yield a larger set of galaxies , which will provide more stringent constraints on the dust content of star-forming dwarf galaxies .