Axiocerses harpax, the common scarlet, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.

It is found in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, the DRCongo, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Oman, Kenya and Tanzania.

[2] The habitat consists of forests, woodland and savanna.

They are associated with ants of the Crematogaster and Pheidole genera.

They live under the bark of their host plant and are gregarious.