When creating an Element with a ref from inside of a constructor an error is thrown in production mode, but not in dev mode.

Here is a minimal sample:
https://jsfiddle.net/84v837e9/35/

An error, "Only a ReactOwner can have refs", should happen in dev and production modes.

This is happening in React 15.4
transaction,
    context,
  ) {
    var markup;
    var checkpoint = transaction.checkpoint();
    try {
      markup = this.performInitialMount(
        renderedElement,
        hostParent,
        hostContainerInfo,
        transaction,
        context,
      );
    } catch (e) {
      
      transaction.rollback(checkpoint);
      this._instance.componentDidCatch(e);
      if (this._pendingStateQueue) {
        this._instance.state = this._processPendingState(
          this._instance.props,
          this._instance.context,
        );
      }
      checkpoint = transaction.checkpoint();
      this._renderedComponent.unmountComponent(
        true ,
        
        true ,
      );
      transaction.rollback(checkpoint);