I found it in my inside entrance to my house on vancouver island, BC and have no idea what type of spider it is. It's body was about 3/4" from head to tail and 1/2" wide. It had markings on it's back as you can see from the pictures I took. The legs seem to alternate yellow/brownish from what I could tell. Thanks in advance!
This is an orb-weaving spider (family Araneidae) in the genus Araneus - see http://www.canadianarachnology.org/data/spiders/14834#image for an example. The colour patterns of many species in this genus can be quite variable, so that it often is difficult to make a specific determination from a single image.
Thank you very much. I have released it back to its home and I hope it stays there!
