Let $\mathbb {Z}$ be the additive (semi)group of integers. We prove that for a finite semigroup S the direct product $\mathbb {Z}\times S$ contains only countably many subdirect products (up to isomorphism) if and only if S is regular. As a corollary we show that $\mathbb {Z}\times S$ has only countably many subsemigroups (up to isomorphism) if and only if S is completely regular.

It is shown that the Ellis semigroup of a $\mathbb Z$ -action on a compact totally disconnected space is completely regular if and only if forward proximality coincides with forward asymptoticity and backward proximality coincides with backward asymptoticity. Furthermore, the Ellis semigroup of a $\mathbb Z$ - or $\mathbb R$ -action for which forward proximality and backward proximality are transitive relations is shown to have at most two left minimal ideals. Finally, the notion of near simplicity of the Ellis semigroup is introduced and related to the above.

We consider several familiar varieties of completely regular semigroups such as groups and completely simple semigroups. For each of them, we characterize their members in terms of absence of certain kinds of subsemigroups, as well as absence of certain divisors, and in terms of a homomorphism of a concrete semigroup into the semigroup itself. For each of these varieties $ \mathcal{V} $ we determine minimal non-$ \mathcal{V} $ varieties, provide a basis for their identities, determine their join and give a basis for its identities. Most of this is complete; one of the items missing is a basis for identities for minimal nonlocal orthogroups. Three tables and a figure illustrate the results obtained.

Completely regular semigroups CR are regarded here as algebras with multiplication and the unary operation of inversion. Their lattice of varieties is denoted by L(CR). Let B denote the variety of bands and L(B) the lattice of its subvarieties. The mapping V → V ∩ B is a complete homomorphism of L(CR) onto L(B). The congruence induced by it has classes that are intervals, say VB = [VB, VB] for V ∈ L(CR). Here VB = V ∩ B. We characterize VB in several ways, the principal one being an inductive way of constructing bases for v-irreducible band varieties. We term the latter canonical. We perform a similar analysis for the intersection of these varieties with the varieties BG, OBG and B.