While the ubiquitous garden cross spider (Araneus diadematus) perishes in late autumn, another species of orb-weaver remains active throughout the winter. Common and widespread, Zygiella x-notata is typically found close to human habitation, its webs strung under guttering, and spanning door and window frames. Though similar in appearance to the two-dimensional, concentric-circle webs constructed by its more familiar relative, its orbs usually have a distinctive wedge-shaped segment missing from an upper quadrant, hence the spider’s common name, missing-sector orb-weaver.