diff --git a/openquake/calculators/extract.py b/openquake/calculators/extract.py
index ef2d7a950e3..501e63072bd 100644
--- a/openquake/calculators/extract.py
+++ b/openquake/calculators/extract.py
@@ -852,8 +852,12 @@ def extract_agg_damages(dstore, what):
         number of damage states, or an array of length 0 if there is no data
         for the given tags
     """
-    loss_type, what = what.rsplit('?', 1)  # loss_type in mandatory
-    tags = what.split('&') if what else []
+    if '?' in what:
+        loss_type, what = what.rsplit('?', 1)
+        tags = what.split('&') if what else []
+    else:
+        loss_type = what
+        tags = []
     if 'damages-rlzs' in dstore:
         oq = dstore['oqparam']
         li = oq.lti[loss_type]
diff --git a/openquake/calculators/tests/scenario_damage_test.py b/openquake/calculators/tests/scenario_damage_test.py
index c4af7d138da..bf34d84ac6e 100644
--- a/openquake/calculators/tests/scenario_damage_test.py
+++ b/openquake/calculators/tests/scenario_damage_test.py
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ def test_case_1c(self):
                               delta=1E-5)
 
         # check agg_damages extraction
-        total = extract(self.calc.datastore, 'agg_damages/structural?')
+        total = extract(self.calc.datastore, 'agg_damages/structural')
 
         aac(total, [[27652.219, 28132.8, 9511.933, 2870.9312, 11832.913]],
             atol=.1)