SPIDER ID!???? help

[P. Novak]

ya my friend has found a spider crawling on his screen door and we cant figure out what it is...ill show you a pic...and oh we live in san jose, cali

the spider has like yellow bands all over its leg...along with some yellow decor on his abdoman...the second pic is for size comparison with a quater (25 cents)

[Jaygnar]

I can't see it too clearly, but try googling for images of a black and yellow garden spider, (Argiope_aurantia) . Compare and post back with results/ better pics.
just my guess.

[P. Novak]

ok ill get more picks soon like in 30 min...just waiting for my friend..

[Joel&Tyler R]

Does this look like it?

[P. Novak]

HERE IS AN UNDERSIDE PIC....ill get more later...

[P. Novak]

a little different but close

[Wade]

Quite likley, it's in the genus Araneus, which is the biggest spider genus with over 1,500 species named so far. Figuring out which one would likely take a specialist.

There are other genera it could be as well, but Araneus is such a big and widespread genus I'd say there's a good chance it's one of those.

Wade

[NRF]

[QUOTE=Wade]Quite likley, it's in the genus Araneus, which is the biggest spider genus with over 1,500 species named so far. Figuring out which one would likely take a specialist.

It´s not that big a problem. In California there are only about 12 Araneus spp. so with a little knowledge of what they look like it would not be a big problem to have at least a good guess which species is in question. I know only two of them so I cannot be to any big help. From where have you got the number 1500? World wide Araneus species should only be a little more than 650.

[Wade]

I got the figure from Levi and Levi's "Spiders and their Kin" which is, admittidly, very out of date. I just looked at Platnik and it looks like lots of them have been broken into other other genera so it's probably alot smaller now.

Wade

[NRF]

HERE IS AN UNDERSIDE PIC....ill get more later...

We are waiting...