The variety of idempotent semigroups is inherently non-finitely generated. (Q818937)

The variety \(\mathcal E\) of all idempotent semigroups is known to be locally finite, [see \textit{D.~McLean}, Am. Math. Mon. 61, 110-113 (1954; Zbl 0055.01404)], while every proper subvariety of \(\mathcal E\) is generated by a finite semigroup. The author proves that, in contrast, \(\mathcal E\) is not contained in any variety generated by a finite semigroup. The paper also contains an elegant observation (due to R.~McKenzie) that extends the above result by showing that, moreover, \(\mathcal E\) is not contained in any variety generated by a finite groupoid.