diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java
index f32a00507..a6584a19f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheck.java
@@ -190,6 +190,9 @@ public class IllegalInstantiationCheck
      */
     private void processLiteralNew(DetailAST aAST)
     {
+        if (aAST.getParent().getType() == TokenTypes.METHOD_REF) {
+            return;
+        }
         mInstantiations.add(aAST);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheckTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheckTest.java
index b62a53568..b3bd34097 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheckTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/coding/IllegalInstantiationCheckTest.java
@@ -48,4 +48,15 @@ public class IllegalInstantiationCheckTest
         };
         verify(checkConfig, getPath("InputSemantic.java"), expected);
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testJava8() throws Exception
+    {
+        final DefaultConfiguration checkConfig =
+                createCheckConfig(IllegalInstantiationCheck.class);
+        final String[] expected = {};
+        verify(checkConfig,
+                getPath("grammars/java8/InputMethodReferencesTest2.java"),
+                expected);
+    }
 }