java.lang.NullPointerException is thrown using a method-reference but not a lambda expression
<p>I've noticed something weird about unhandled exceptions using Java 8 method reference. This is my code, using the lambda expression <code>() -&gt; s.toLowerCase()</code>:</p>

<pre><code>public class Test {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        testNPE(null);
    }

    private static void testNPE(String s) {
        Thread t = new Thread(() -&gt; s.toLowerCase());
//        Thread t = new Thread(s::toLowerCase);
        t.setUncaughtExceptionHandler((t1, e) -&gt; System.out.println("Exception!"));
        t.start();
    }
}
</code></pre>

<p>It prints "Exception", so it works fine. But when I change <code>Thread t</code> to use a method-reference (even IntelliJ suggests that):</p>

<pre><code>Thread t = new Thread(s::toLowerCase);
</code></pre>

<p>the exception is not being caught:</p>

<pre class="lang-none prettyprint-override"><code>Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at Test.testNPE(Test.java:9)
    at Test.main(Test.java:4)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:144)
</code></pre>

<p>Can someone explain what is going on here?</p>