I did not know what I was starting when I used this card as the representation of a sloth. It turns out to be a very strange tale and its not solved yet.
So many thanks to a visitor to our recent online convention who has kindly provided more information. This card was issued by Kinney of New York, from their untitled series which has come to be known as Animals. You can find it in the reference books as either K524-075 or USA/217
On the reverse, which we show here, it gives the names of all the animals and clearly states this is an Ant Lion.
In fact this is a most wonderful reverse, it is back listed, which means the titles of the cards appear, but look at the way the shortest name appears at the top left and the bottom right so there is a very pleasing symmetrical pattern. Just think of the planning involved in this simple task, without a computer.
Anyway if you look up Ant Lion in a modern day search engine, you don't get this animal, you get a strange looking insect which eats ants. So did Kinney get it wrong? Or was this animal originally called an Ant Lion and then renamed, leaving the name behind to be used for the insect? Are there any insectologists reading that would like to explain...