That artwork reminds me a lot of the ACM renders from the DKC games. I'd probably believe you if you told me it was a prototype Zinger design from 1994.
Cute evil bugger. The main villain is a bee, so I suppose it'll be in the main game rather than dlc, and looks pretty small so I suppose it will be a kind of mook although maybe a difficult one.
I still have no idea what the heck that bottom thing is. I guess they had to amputate the lower half of his body and tried replacing it with a pinecone.
This guy's been featured in many trailers, hovering around shooting the spikes from its bottom half. I love this still; allows us to get a better look at it. Awesome design!