Examines ants, say, all over Portugal (8)
I believe the answer is:
inspects
'examines' is the definition.
(inspecting is a kind of examining)
'ants say all over portugal' is the wordplay.
'ants say' becomes 'insects' (ant is a kind of insect).
'all over' is an insertion indicator.
'portugal' becomes 'p' (common abbreviation eg on car number plates).
'insects' enclosing 'p' is 'INSPECTS'.
(Other definitions for inspects that I've seen before include "Examines, subjects to scrutiny" , "Looks closely at something" , "acts as an Observer" , "Examines carefully" , "Scrutinises" .)