My husband found this on our porch just a few minutes ago! We live in Massachusetts and don't normally see things quite like this. It is about the size of a quarter with a really fat abdomen. We took a picture....let me know if you know what kind of spider this is!
What do you think? http://bugguide.net/node/view/75018
As ceejaytown indicated, this orb-weaver (family Araneidae) does appear to be an Araneus spp.; species in ths genus can show quite a bit of individual variation in color/pattern - see http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/orb_weavers_genus_araneus for more examples. Although they often attract attention because of their size, they all are harmless to humans.
