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 checkpoint = transaction.checkpoint();
    try {
      this._updateRenderedComponent(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._updateRenderedComponentWithNextElement(
        transaction,
        context,
        null,
        true ,
      );
      
      
      this._updateRenderedComponent(transaction, context);
    }
  },
  /**
   * Call the component's `render` method and update the DOM accordingly.
   *