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
updateQueue,
  ) {
    var Component = this._currentElement.type;
    if (doConstruct) {
      if (__DEV__) {
        return measureLifeCyclePerf(
          () => new Component(publicProps, publicContext, updateQueue),
          this._debugID,
          'ctor',
        );
      } else {
        return new Component(publicProps, publicContext, updateQueue);
      }
    }
    
    
    if (__DEV__) {
      return measureLifeCyclePerf(
        () => Component(publicProps, publicContext, updateQueue),
        this._debugID,
        'render',
      );
    } else {
      return Component(publicProps, publicContext, updateQueue);
    }
  },
  performInitialMountWithErrorHandling: function(
    renderedElement,
    hostParent,
    hostContainerInfo,