XCOM: One Does Not Simply "Shoot" a Cryssalid...

[Hiro Protagonest]

You can also get the research credits from those interrogations that are just wonderfully efficient themselves. I wouldn't dream of researching plasma weapons without having interrogated a muton for a 50% off bonus.

Yeah. I'll hold off on Carapace Armor in favor of the other two starting researches, because I want that Floater credit. And if I capture a Sectoid first (which is unlikely, but possible), then I'm researching Beam Weapons first.

You get the research credits without the South America bonus, though, and it doesn't help you capture them, just speeds up interrogations and autopsies.