LP:619300 - Got error 177 from storage engine - Too many active concurrent transactions

When executing a DML workload against Maria 5.3 with the aria storage engine, some queries fail with

1030 Got error 177 from storage engine

which translates to

MySQL error code 177: Too many active concurrent transactions

if a breakpoint is placed at handler.cc:2788, the following backtrace is observed:

#0 handler::print_error (this=0x99ee0f68, error=177, errflag=0) at handler.cc:2788
#1 0x0831dcdf in report_error (table=0x99ec1e40, error=177) at sql_select.cc:13409
#2 0x0831eb03 in join_read_next_same (info=0xbf2f994) at sql_select.cc:13802
#3 0x0831d398 in sub_select (join=0xbdd65f8, join_tab=0xbf2f950, end_of_records=false) at sql_select.cc:13106
#4 0x0831d962 in evaluate_join_record (join=0xbdd65f8, join_tab=0xbf2f790, error=0) at sql_select.cc:13278
#5 0x0831d457 in sub_select (join=0xbdd65f8, join_tab=0xbf2f790, end_of_records=false) at sql_select.cc:13126
#6 0x0831c70f in do_select (join=0xbdd65f8, fields=0x0, table=0xbe0e510, procedure=0x0) at sql_select.cc:12633
#7 0x08300e09 in JOIN::exec (this=0xbdd65f8) at sql_select.cc:1933
#8 0x08303209 in mysql_select (thd=0xbcce448, rref_pointer_array=0xbccfee0, tables=0xbcffba8, wild_num=0, fields=..., conds=0x0, og_num=3, order=0xbdef128,
    group=0x0, having=0x0, proc_param=0x0, select_options=2147764736, result=0xbe2d7e8, unit=0xbccfb24, select_lex=0xbccfdc4) at sql_select.cc:2556
#9 0x082fb7fb in handle_select (thd=0xbcce448, lex=0xbccfac8, result=0xbe2d7e8, setup_tables_done_option=0) at sql_select.cc:276
#10 0x0829a244 in execute_sqlcom_select (thd=0xbcce448, all_tables=0xbcffba8) at sql_parse.cc:5081
#11 0x08290c1c in mysql_execute_command (thd=0xbcce448) at sql_parse.cc:2265
#12 0x0829c405 in mysql_parse (thd=0xbcce448,
    inBuf=0xbd4b020 "SELECT IFNULL(b.id_board, 0) AS id_board, b.id_parent, b.name AS board_name, b.description, b.child_level, b.board_order, b.count_posts, b.member_groups, b.id_theme, b.override_theme, b.id_profile, b."..., length=421, found_semicolon=0x9a1ff230) at sql_parse.cc:6027
#13 0x0828e6d2 in dispatch_command (command=COM_QUERY, thd=0xbcce448,
    packet=0xbcd0469 "SELECT IFNULL(b.id_board, 0) AS id_board, b.id_parent, b.name AS board_name, b.description, b.child_level, b.board_order, b.count_posts, b.member_groups, b.id_theme, b.override_theme, b.id_profile, b."..., packet_length=421) at sql_parse.cc:1184
#14 0x0828dbc0 in do_command (thd=0xbcce448) at sql_parse.cc:890
#15 0x0828ad58 in handle_one_connection (arg=0xbcce448) at sql_connect.cc:1153
#16 0x00a08919 in start_thread () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#17 0x00951e5e in clone () from /lib/libc.so.6

In other words, the error seems to be produced by ha_index_next_same() when called by join_read_next_same()