On inverse subsemigroups of the semigroup of orientation-preserving or orientation-reversing transformations

It is well-known [16] that the semigroup Tn of all total transformations of a given n-element set Xn is covered by its inverse subsemigroups. This note provides a short and direct proof, based on properties of digraphs of transformations, that every inverse subsemigroup of order-preserving transformations on a finite chain Xn is a semilattice of idempotents, and so the semigroup of all order-preserving transformations of Xn is not covered by its inverse subsemigroups. This result is used to show that the semigroup of all orientation-preserving transformations and the semigroup of all orientation-preserving or orientation-reversing transformations of the chain Xn are covered by their inverse subsemigroups precisely when n≤3.