I found a dozen or so of these small C-shaped grubs in an oak log riddled with galleries -- presumably of ant*s since I encountered a few small pockets of them and no ter*mites. Since I also found three species of scaraboid adults in the log I was unsure which these might belong to. The three adult species were Valgus seticol*lis, Valgus canalicul*atus, and the st*ag beetle Ce*ruchus pic*eus. (Asterisks are used to keep site search function from showing these images on searches for those names.)

I think my photos show enough to rule out sta*g beetles since the anal slit appears to be transverse (running side-to-side) rather than vertical (running from top to bottom) as all s*tag beetle larvae are said to have. To me that means there is a good possibility these are one or more species of Valgus.

I hope to see some of these larvae mature so we can know for sure.

(Outrageous insertion of asterisks in some insect names is intended to prevent this image from being shown in searches on those words.)