Quote Originally Posted by Miss Z
I'm not too good at recognising spiders, so I had a look in a book The closest one I can find to it is araneus quadratus, and it looks like that one is a female. The one in my book is a darker brown but it says they can vary in colour and spin beautiful complex webs. Not entirely sure if I'm right but I hope I've helped
It has similar traits and the araneus quadratus looks like an orb weaving type (the types that spin complex geometric webs) however that particular one is only in Europe and Asia and not North America. This one looks like a cobweb weaver (Theridiidae family) rather than of the orb weaver family to me. The size of the abdomen definitely makes her a female. She's pretty . Spiders are fascinating. It's really too bad Hollywood and horror stories have villainized them so much and made them such objects of fear. They are extremely beneficial creatures.