In European Standards concerned with the preventive action of wood preservatives against termites, i.e. EN 117, EN 118 the obligatory test species is Reticulitermes santonensis. It is argued that this species is more aggressive than the second European Reticulitermtes species, Reticulitermes lucifugus. Since Reticulitermes santonensis is confined to certain smaller areas in France and thus not readily available and since furthermore experimental data are not at hand, a comparative laboratory investigation on the wood consumption of several Reticulitermes species was performed employing the experimental setup of EN 117. It was shown that a comparative evaluation of the aggressiveness of different species should be performed on the basis of mass wood-consumption/unit body-mass rather than comparing the consumption rates per individual. There is no indication of a significant difference in aggressiveness between Reticulitermes santonensis and Reticulitermes lucifugus when tested under the experimental conditions of EN 117.

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