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
if (__DEV__) {
      this._warnedAboutRefsInRender = false;
    }
  },
  /**
   * Initializes the component, renders markup, and registers event listeners.
   *
   * @param {ReactReconcileTransaction|ReactServerRenderingTransaction} transaction
   * @param {?object} hostParent
   * @param {?object} hostContainerInfo
   * @param {?object} context
   * @return {?string} Rendered markup to be inserted into the DOM.
   * @final
   * @internal
   */
  mountComponent: function(
    transaction,
    hostParent,
    hostContainerInfo,
    context,
  ) {
    this._context = context;
    this._mountOrder = nextMountID++;
    this._hostParent = hostParent;
    this._hostContainerInfo = hostContainerInfo;
    var publicProps = this._currentElement.props;
    var publicContext = this._processContext(context);
    var Component = this._currentElement.type;
    var updateQueue = transaction.getUpdateQueue();