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__) {
        measureLifeCyclePerf(
          () => inst.componentWillMount(),
          this._debugID,
          'componentWillMount',
        );
      } else {
        inst.componentWillMount();
      }
      
      
      if (this._pendingStateQueue) {
        inst.state = this._processPendingState(inst.props, inst.context);
      }
    }
    var markup;
    if (inst.componentDidCatch) {
      markup = this.performInitialMountWithErrorHandling(
        renderedElement,
        hostParent,
        hostContainerInfo,
        transaction,
        context,
      );
    } else {
      markup = this.performInitialMount(
        renderedElement,
        hostParent,
        hostContainerInfo,
        transaction,