The adult female is easily recognized by the characteristic leaf-like mark on her posterior opisthosoma, caudal to the yellow-brown cephalothorax.

Capture of prey occurs as the foreleg of Z. x-notata detects vibrations on the signal strand that connects the spider's retreat to the prey-capturing hub of the web.

Characteristically, this species is known to build a web with a missing sector containing solely a signal thread in the top half.

[7] The female spider will sit in her retreat on the web, which is attached to a signal strand in the characteristic missing orb-web sector.

[4] Male Zygiella x-notata feed similarly to females as juveniles, but once they reach adulthood they no longer build webs in order to capture prey, rather focusing on successful reproduction.

[18] There are four stages of predatory behavior in Zygiella x-notata as described by Venner et al.: first, the "waiting phase" occurs, in which the spider is immobile in its retreat in the top corner of the web.

Zygiella x-notata has been observed to bite and wrap its prey with silk during this phase as a means of incapacitation, prior to transportation to the retreat.

When building an orb-web to initiate the prey-capture behavior, female Zygiella x-notata can detect the presence of potential prey through air-borne vibrations.

In a characteristic and repeatable series of events, the spider exits the hub, rushing in the direction of the source of the initial vibratory signal.

[5] The predatory feeding behavior of the missing sector orb weaver influences changes in web construction.

[19][20] A similar study conducted by Venner et al. found that this species of orb weaving spiders changes its web building behavior in response to new information detected during prey capture.

Finally, she remodels the center of the web – the hub – which connects to the signal thread as a prey detection device for the spider which lay in wait in her retreat.

[7][16]Multiple studies have shown that the composition and construction frequency of Zygiella x-notata orb webs change with increasing age and experience in the resident female.

Venner et al. established a correlation between prey capture and ingestion, and web rebuilding practices among adult female Z. x-notata.

Based on its knowledge of its retreat, Zygiella species typically leave a missing sector especially when creating webs on a door or window frame.

[25] Zygiella x-notata is an iteroparous species, with individual spiders engaging in multiple reproductive events throughout the course of their adult lifetime.

[25] The structural composition of Zygiella egg sacs is similar with that of most other species belonging to the same family of orb-weaving spiders, Araneidae.

Female Zygiella x-notata store male sperm after mating, subsequently producing one egg sac during late autumn.

Females that survive through winter sometimes produce additional egg sacs in the spring with their previous mate's stored sperm.

Adult male Zygiella x-notata spiders have been found to be choosy for female mates in high competition environments.

Although there is an energetic cost to mate-guarding, males who engage in this behavior incur differential reproductive success on the basis of increased body size and competitive ability.

[18] The orb webs of female Zygiella x-notata spiders hang vertically under high tension conditions as two-dimensional sheets of silk.

Male spiders of this species have been found to utilize the high tension of the web's silk threads to send vibrational courtship signals to the resident female.

Male Z. x-notata spiders were found to produce three types of vibrational courtship signals on the female's web.

The "pulling" and "plucking" signals are both performed by the male immediately prior to copulation as a means of arousing the resident female.

[17] This "burping" practice prevents the female from attacking the male as he begins engaging in the "pulling" and "plucking" pre-courtship signaling.

However, the close proximity in which webs are built in their natural environments (i.e. near or on human constructions) may lead to aggressive, territorial behavior between individuals.

Consequently, this aggressive typology is constrained to urban dwelling Zygiella found in web aggregations near preferential habitual spaces, indicating evolving behavioral plasticity in the species.

First, adult male Zygiella x-notata do not produce orb webs and thus reside on window frames or other human structures.

When placed in contrast with their residence on human settlements, the dark color of the male is easily visible and thus preferentially located by wasps.