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
var ReactCompositeComponent = {
  /**
   * Base constructor for all composite component.
   *
   * @param {ReactElement} element
   * @final
   * @internal
   */
  construct: function(element) {
    this._currentElement = element;
    this._rootNodeID = 0;
    this._compositeType = null;
    this._instance = null;
    this._hostParent = null;
    this._hostContainerInfo = null;
    
    this._updateBatchNumber = null;
    this._pendingElement = null;
    this._pendingStateQueue = null;
    this._pendingReplaceState = false;
    this._pendingForceUpdate = false;
    this._renderedNodeType = null;
    this._renderedComponent = null;
    this._context = null;
    this._mountOrder = 0;
    this._topLevelWrapper = null;
    
    this._pendingCallbacks = null;
    
    this._calledComponentWillUnmount = false;